It’s been in the wind for awhile that a new location of The Chickenburger was gonna happen downtown. Looks like that day is almost here, as the recognizable signs are all up at 1466 Queen Street, just beside American Apparel. Owner Colin MacDonald says doors will open in the next few weeks. “We’re hoping for early April,” he says, though is reluctant to be any more specific than that as construction is still ongoing.
The location was renovated to accommodate the diner, “to make it fit with the motif and bring it up to code,” says MacDonald, who was impressed with the building’s old chimney. “It’s got a lot of charatcer,” which suits The Chickenburger’s nostalgia-heavy comfort food aesthetic. It’ll also have some parking directly out front, a rarity for restaurants in the area.
Expect this summer to be all about the milkshakes, burgers and fries beloved for decades in Bedford, soon available just off Spring Garden Road.
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2012.
I just can’t see this working. Let’s be honest here, Chicken Burger’s food isn’t THAT great, and it’s pretty damn expensive. What keeps me going back is the atmosphere, nostalgia, and the adventure of “going out” to Bedford for some unique fast food. So now we can get the same mediocre, expensive food without the atmosphere, nostalgia, and adventure. Great.
I disagree with hipp5. First of all, the food is actually pretty decent as far as a greasy burger is concerned. I would have a cheeseburger from Chickenburger any day over Mcdonalds or any other fast food places. Secondly, the atmosphere is going to be very similar downtown as it is out in Bedford. Just looking in I’ve seen many of the same “old diner style” decorations similar to the Bedford location. Considering a burger is only a few dollars and the crowd of drunken students in the area, I think the restaurant will do very well provided their hours are competitive with the rest of the downtown restaurants.
They may do well, but the building is an abomination despite whatever renovations they may have undertaken. They should have knocked the old house down and built something more appropriate to the use.
This is going to be a smash as soon as the good weather kicks in. Mark my words. There’s really nothing like it downtown, and being situated across from the future library and next to two huge new developments on Clyde St. isn’t going to hurt in a couple of years.
Don’t forget – our new megabucks library is gonna have a CAFE in it! What a concept! Since everyone knows there is no place to get food and coffee at the corner of SGR and Queen.
Ah, Halifax. Bitch and moan whenever a business leaves downtown as if the city’s on the same level of urban dilapidation as Detroit or maybe coastal Somalia. Then when development actually does occur downtown, bitch and moan about it anyway because it’s too tall for our Minor Historic Site Where Little Of Historical Interest Ever Actually Happened or they have the gall to put in an extra cafe on Atlantic Canada’s busiest retail street or whatever other asinine reason people decide to scrape together.
Is complaining about EVERYthing a clause written into this city’s civic code or something?