Florence Mayor Mickey Haddock's weekly newsletter last week said that Dairy Queen was going in the old Backyard Burgers building.

I have seen some activity in that location recently as I pass there several times a day. I would welcome a Dairy Queen, and all of those would be a welcome to the area, especially the Outback and Cheddars.  My kids ove Steak and Shake, and would love to see it closer to the Hwy 72 / Cox Creek interchange for my own preference, but I guess location spots area  prime consideration.

I was going down Court Street just yesterday and though it would be nice to have an ice cream right now.

Another local online news source said Shirey's is coming to downtown Florence in just a few weeks.

Cheddars. Blah.

I keep hearing that Zaxby's is coming to the Petersville Wal-Mart site, but all I know for sure is that some one is prepping a site in the Northeast corner.

Any news on Steak & Shake? I'm pretty excited about this development.

I certainly don't want to be a Kill Joy but I doubt very seriously that Steak and Shake would consider a town the size of Florence/Muscle Shoals to bring a restaurant to.  For one most Steak and Shake locations that are in smaller towns are located on or at an Interstate Highway, something we do not have.  

 

That said nothing is impossible until it happens so I suppose IF someone is wealthy enough and wants to spend the money on a franchise and locate one here I doubt Steak and Shake would turn it away and say absolutely not.  I think a far more likely scenario is that Steak and Shake as well as Cheddars was tossed in there to make it sound great to those who eat up rumors.  Now, as for me, I've been looking for someone to hopefully put a "Firehouse Subs" but what with Jimmy John's coming in downtown that's not too bad a substitute for Firehouse but still not quite as good (my own opinion mind you).

 

Time will tell if the rumors are good or not but I wouldn't go holding my breath for I'm not too optimistic on three of the four that I had heard about.  Dairy Queen is pretty much assured and a second location for Outback is reasonable but I doubt probable .  Steak & Shake and Cheddars I'm afraid was someone's "pie in the sky' dreams they sowed hoping that they might come true some day.

With all the steak places, I suspect we are reaching a saturation point. 

It's called Steak and Shake, but it's referring to steakburgers.

I was referring to a second location for a Down Under. Love Steak and Shakes burgers with baked beans.  They serve their shakes the old fashioned way -- with the left over shake in the metal container on the side. 

Anyone else heard that we might be getting a Pei Wei in the old Croc Ed's building? That would be awesome. 

____

 

You will know whether it is a Zaxby's if you see them delivering 500-pound totes of table salt.

 

I suspect Zaxbe's operates its own salt mines, given the liberality with which they apply that condiment to their food.

They better add chicken tenders with raynch and honey mustard dippin' sauce to the menu if they want to survive in Florence!

  You got that one wrong bud, in the Shoals area you better have something more along the line of Zaxby's, Guthrie's, or Jack's Comeback sauce. We are not just the average chicken finger connoisseurs in this area, we need something exceptional. Sauce is not needed if the chicken tenders are good enough like the ones at Sam's Sports Grill. If the restaurant is too uppity to put chicken fingers on the menu then they'll likely not survive in this area. 

  

Well since Pei Wei is an Asian place (it is actually a smaller-scale PF Chang's) I am not sure how chicken fingers fit in.

Still looking for the farms where they raise those mutant chickens -- the ones with fingers.

==============

Same farms where they raise the ones with "nuggets" and chop off the "lady fingers". Let me edit to add, also the farm where the buffalo have wings.

Stir fried chicken tenders? haha

___

Maybe we should  shift our tastes to that strong Asian preference for chicken FEET, which are exported from the U.S. to Southeast Asia by the millions.  Perhaps there is something about that "delicacy" that we Americans have not discovered.  Of course if we keep them at home, we would hurt our balance of payments status, thus giving thewingers something else to lay at thefeet of the President.  But enough for poultry parts!

 

I have heard from a Zaxby's manager direct that YES Zaxby's is building a new Cloverdale Road Location there at the new Walmart.  Didn't really say when the building was scheduled to be done or opened but only that one was for sure coming there.

 

Don't southerners like pigs feet? That's kind of gross. Someone told me once they were reading the ingredients on a jar of pickled pig's feet and it said embryo pigs feet. Ugh.

M-I-l loves the tail of chickens which she calls "the pope's hat".

 

How to Eat Pigs' Feet

Eddie Huang will be changing the menu at BaoHaus monthly.
238 E 14th Street
New York, NY 10003

=========================

So true, they don't come any more "Southern" than someone named huang from new york.

 

____

 

Maybe the frame of reference is southern Cambodia or southern Viet Nam.

Huang is most likely Chinese.

Looks like we may be getting a second Zaxby's after all. Someone told me they have started work on outlot two of the Cloverdale Rd Walmart ( the one I speculated Zaxby's bought) so likely it is probably Zaxby's. Do you think Florence can support two Zaxby's? PS: Dairy queen apparently ( likely ?) bought outlot three and outlot one may still be available.

____

There is opportunity for another Zaxby's in the Shoals, although the company might require the output of another salt mine in order to maintain the extraordinarily high levels of that commodity in its food. 

Yeah but if Zaxby's also owns a salt company this shouldn't be an issue. A new location opened recently in Corinth MS as well.

Also on the topic of Outback they said the current one is starting to get old and in the next ten years may build a new one in Sheffield or move and build the new one in Florence.

Like we need another steak house this side of the river.

The work you saw was on Outlot three likely for Dairy Queen. They quit the work but I here they are now working on Outlot two likely for Zaxby's.

Went to look about the possible building of a Zaxbys in front of the Cloverdale rd Walmart today. I saw absolutely nothing to indicate they are building one.

I was told by a Zaxbys manager a while back that Zaxbys was going to put a location there but that was before all the job losses in the area so could be they have changed their mind or are waiting for a while.

Frankly I'm concerned about future growth in this area.  For a while small businesses were providing growth to the area but add of now things seems to have greatly cooled.

This area is still growing maybe not as rapid as it used to but  growing. Projects going on right now:

1. New Softball fields at the Hwy 2 SportsPlex 2. Tree Cutting Near Cypress Creek ( more info posted under Miscellaneous) 3. Five Below coming to Cox Creek Centre. 4. Genghis Grill. Projects happening soon: 1. New Animal Shelter Near Florence Armory 2. New Indian Mound museum  and the extension of Illinois ST. 3. New Hospital ?. 

Don't forget UNA is also in expansion mode lately.

By the way Best Western intends to build a new Best Western plus hotel next to Loves Truck Stop.