A new Rally’s drive-thru is slated to open soon at 7911 Auburn Blvd., outside Steve Cook’s Fireside Lanes. // CH Sentinel
Updated 12:38 p.m., Feb. 8th– By Mike Hazlip— The owner of the one of the area’s first Rally’s/Checkers burger restaurant continues to move forward despite delays, with plans to open in March.
Franchise owner Ben Aibuedefe told The Sentinel in a phone call Saturday he had hoped to open the drive-thru restaurant last December, but delays have dragged the timeline out longer.
“Man proposes, God disposes,” he said, repeating a comment he’s shared in prior interviews. “I really want to open. Unfortunately that’s how life works, but we will get it open one way or the other.”
The Florida-based Checkers Drive-In Restaurant Inc. currently has over 800 locations nationwide, but the only current location in the Sacramento region opened sometime last year on Florin Road. The restaurant chain is marketed under the names Rally’s and Checkers, and is known for seasoned fries, big burgers, chicken wings and milkshakes.
Aibuedefe didn’t give specific details about the delay, simply saying: “It’s just one of those things.” He filed initial plans for the building in February 2018 and received Planning Commission approval in June of the same year.
Looking back on the project, Aibuedefe said there are things he would have done differently, but he appreciates the hard work that has gone into the project.
“Everyone involved has been doing their ultimate best to get it done,” he said.
The business owner said he chose to open the restaurant in Citrus Heights because of the Auburn Boulevard redevelopment plan. The restaurant’s 827-square-foot modular design began taking shape earlier this year and features a drive-thru window, with no indoor seating by design.
Initial reports referred to the restaurant as Checkers, but Aibuedefe said all West Coast locations of the Checkers/Rally’s restaurants are named Rally’s.
*Correction: An original version of this story incorrectly referred to Citrus Heights being the first location of a Rally’s in the Sacramento region. The article has since been updated to note a new Rally’s that opened on Florin Road.
A new burger drive-thru was approved to take up the vacant corner of Auburn and Grand Oaks boulevards in Citrus Heights. // CH Sentinel
Sentinel staff report–
Does Citrus Heights need another burger joint? Businessman Ben Aibuedefe thinks so, and on Wednesday night he received unanimous approval from planning commissioners to move forward with his plans to bring a new walk-up and drive-thru burger restaurant to a vacant corner on Auburn Boulevard in front of Steve Cook’s Fireside Lanes.
“We are bringing in a value burger,” Aibuedefe told The Sentinel after the June 13 planning commission meeting. “This is really a different (restaurant). I will consider this a Cadillac of a burger.”
The new eatery will be a franchise location of the Florida-based Checkers Drive-In Restaurant Inc., which has over 800 locations nationwide — the nearest location currently being over 150 miles away, near Fresno. The fast-food chain offers items like seasoned fries, big burgers, chicken wings and milkshakes, and markets itself in different parts of the country under the brand names Rally’s and Checker’s.
Plans approved at the June 13 planning commission meeting include a small, 827-square-foot retro-style modular building to be constructed off-site and brought to 7911 Auburn Blvd., with hours of operation calling for a 10 a.m. opening, with closing times as late as 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. There will be no indoor seating at the restaurant, which is typical of Rally’s and Checker’s locations around the country.
See an image of what the new restaurant will look like:click here
Plans call for a drive-thru window on the south side, more trees and landscaping, an outdoor seating area with a walk-up window, and 10 parking spaces along Grand Oaks Boulevard. Two existing driveways would be removed and replaced with landscaping, allowing access from Auburn Boulevard at an existing shared driveway with the bowling alley. Another driveway is also shown allowing access from Grand Oaks Boulevard.
Several commissioners said they had heard comments from the community about there being “too many hamburger joints in Citrus Heights.” Commissioner Michael Lagomarsino acknowledged the comments could be true, but said he “always believed that if a business didn’t think they could make money, then they wouldn’t put up the building or move in there, so I see nothing wrong with that.”
“I think there is a lot of hamburger joints in town, but there’s not really a lot of them in that particular area,” said Planning Commission Chairman Russell Blair, echoing comments by his fellow commissioner. “I think the location’s great with Rusch Park right across the parking lot from it — I think it will be successful; I’m all for it.”
Other commissioners said they were glad to see the vacant corner being finally developed, after a prior auto shop and gas station at the site were demolished in the early 1990s. In comments to The Sentinel made after the meeting, Commissioner Tim Schaefer called the existing corner “really ugly” and said he’d “been looking at it for too long.”
Aibuedefe told the commission he was looking forward to improving the corner, which he said will fit with the city’s plan to move forward with roadway and sidewalk improvements as part of “Phase II” of the Auburn Boulevard Complete Streets Revitalization Project. He also said security cameras and 24-hour lighting will be implemented to address concerns related to homelessness in the area.
In a 7-0 vote, commissioners approved the project as proposed, with a minor condition added to require additional signage at the drive-thru exit to help mitigate safety concerns about pedestrians and vehicle traffic crossing in front of the exit path.
Aibuedefe said he plans to open the new burger restaurant, which will be branded under the name Rally’s, by the end of this year, or early next year at the latest. The franchisee said he also plans to open more locations in the future, possibly in other parts of the city.
The new burger drive-thru will have some nearby competition when California Quick Slice opens a block away at 7766 Auburn Blvd. Plans for the new pizza place were approved in March, which will re-format an old gas station near Auburn Boulevard and Antelope Road into a drive-thru pizza restaurant.
“The main focus isn’t to compete with pizza restaurants, it’s to compete with hamburgers and tacos,” owner Mercer Tyson told planning commissioners during a public hearing earlier this year. “So when you drive down the street, instead of getting a burger, you get a pizza and a coke.”
As previously reported on The Sentinel, Aibuedefe immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in his twenties and now lives in Roseville. The 58-year-old said he ran a gas station business for the past 12 years, but had his eye on opening a restaurant all along.
“I always wanted to go into fast food, but I wanted the right fit,” he said in a phone interview. “I just wanted to get away from the gas station business and focus on something different.”
According to a city staff report, the new Rally’s drive-thru will be the first completely new building along Auburn Boulevard since 2007 and will also be the first national chain to open within the Rusch Park District.
One of several building design options that could be used for a new Checkers restaurant in Citrus Heights. // Image credit: PRNewswire
Seasoned fries, big burgers, chicken wings and milkshakes will soon be served up in Citrus Heights at a new drive-thru restaurant on Auburn Boulevard, if everything goes as planned.
Local Franchisee Ben Aibuedefe told The Sentinel his new Checkers drive-thru is planned for the corner of Grand Oaks and Auburn Boulevards, next to the Fireside Lanes bowling alley. He said the location will likely be around 1,000 square feet in size and won’t have any indoor seating, but will have a walk-up window and a few outdoor seats — a typical setup seen at Checkers around the country.
The Florida-based restaurant chain has over 800 locations nationwide, but this will be the first in the Sacramento area. The new restaurant is part of a regional expansion of the Checkers brand to the Sacramento area and Aibuedefe said he’s hopeful to add more franchise locations in the region down the road. The company previously announced plans that it was seeking to open 26 restaurants in the Sacramento area.
Originally from Nigeria, Aibuedefe came to the United States in his twenties and now lives in Roseville. The 57-year-old said he ran a gas station business for the past 12 years, but had his eye on opening a restaurant all along.
“I always wanted to go into fast food, but I wanted the right fit,” the franchisee said in a phone interview with The Sentinel on Friday. “I just wanted to get away from the gas station business and focus on something different.”
As part of a search for a spot in three cities in the Sacramento valley, he said the vacant spot at 7911 Auburn Blvd. was identified as a “great location” with close proximity to his home. He also said Citrus Heights stood out as a well-managed city with “plans to keep improving the infrastructure.”
Aibuedefe said he’s currently hired a civil engineer to work on the site plan, but couldn’t promise an opening date due to unknowns about the project.
“We would have loved to open by the end of the year, but I’m not committed to that until I see how the permitting goes,” he said, adding that city staff have been “very helpful” so far.
Citrus Heights Senior Planner Casey Kempenaar told The Sentinel preliminary discussion about the new Checkers restaurant had taken place, but said an application has not yet been submitted to the city. He said the drive-thru feature will require a use permit, and a design review permit could also be needed, “depending on size.”
Once permits are acquired, Aibuedefe is confident his new restaurant could pop up within six weeks, due to the company’s new “modular” format that allows for the building to be manufactured off-site and then delivered for quick install.
Restaurant hours are planned for an initial close time of midnight, but Aibuedefe said he’d consider staying open 24-hours-a-day if its “financially effective” and safe for employees after midnight. The neighboring bowling alley is open until midnight during weekdays and 1:30 a.m. on weekends.
Checkers was founded in 1986 and merged with Rally’s in 1999. The Rally’s brand was kept in certain markets, but the same menu items are offered at both Checkers and Rally’s.
