Winthrop Street Burger King gets $1 million renovation. When will it reopen?

TAUNTON — It’s been a strictly drive-thru experience during the past month for customers of the Winthrop Street Burger King.

But that’s to be expected when a $1 million renovation is underway.

The fast-food, or quick-service, restaurant at 294 Winthrop St. has been in the midst of a major overhaul. The dining room, as a result, has remained off limits to customers until all the work has been completed.

“We hope to (fully) reopen by January,” said franchise owner Brek Kohler, president of Waltham-based Mastoran Corp., which now owns and operates 38 Burger Kings in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Kohler says once the dining room reopens the drive-thru lane will be open for business round the clock.

Until then, he said, his staff of 25 employees, most of whom are full-time, continue to clock in and work shifts.

The extensive restaurant renovation on Route 44 in Taunton’s Westville neighborhood includes all new kitchen equipment within the 2,700-square-foot structure.

The renovated burger eatery will also boast a redesigned and rebuilt dining room with various seating options and updated lighting; new flooring; two self-help ordering kiosks; new bathrooms; and a front entrance and lobby carved out of the building’s east corner facing the adjacent Papa Gino’s restaurant.

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The exterior area hugging the building has also been brought up to snuff in terms of fire code regulations. Kohler says potentially flammable mulch and bushes have been replaced with decorative stones.

And paving upgrades have been made to the drive-thru lane that snakes around the nearly 35-year-old eatery.

In addition to Burger King and Papa Gino’s, tenants of the RK Plaza also include AutoZone, Dollar Tree, Platinum City Gaming and the Hannaford grocery store on Warner Boulevard.

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Time to upgrade

Kohler said the Winthrop Street Burger King first opened in 1990. His family’s franchise business — established in 1985 by his father Larry and Brek’s late mother Paige — bought it in 2009.

He says sales at the “high volume” Winthrop Street location have held steady during the last 14 years but acknowledges the time had come for a major structural and aesthetic upgrade.

“The old owners didn’t invest in it too much,” Kohler, 46, said.

He also says Burger King franchisees are required at various points of ownership to undertake significant upgrades depending on the age of a restaurant.

“We needed to do this after 20 years to renew our franchise agreement,” Kohler said.

The upgrades and improvements at the Winthrop Street Burger King come five years after the nearby McDonald’s in Plaza 44 underwent its own million-dollar renovation.

Taunton has one other Burger King. Located on County Street/Route 140, it just opened within the past year and is owned and operated by a New York state husband and wife who own some 60 BK franchises — including all three in Fall River and one in Swansea.

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Corporate assist

Burger King Corporation in late 2022 announced its “Reclaim the Flame” plan to revive the BK brand — which two years earlier fell to third in sales behind Wendy’s and McDonald’s — by spending $400 million over the following two years.

Half the $400 million is being used to fund the remodeling of roughly 800 of the nearly 7,000 U.S. Burger King restaurants.

The remaining $200 million is being used at other locations to upgrade kitchen equipment, technology and mobile app capability, as well as for a new national advertising campaign.

The ad campaign will roll out a new slogan called “You Rule.” The chain’s original brand logo was “Have It Your Way” later replaced by “Be Your Way.”

Kohler declined to reveal what percentage Mastoran Corp. is paying of the $1 million renovation of his Winthrop Street location other than that it easily exceeds half the amount.

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New menu: Spicier, smoky Whopper and 'halfie' hybrid sides

New menu adjustments at Burger King reportedly will include some spicier, smoky flavored variations of the signature Whopper and more flexibility when it comes to “combo meals” — including a new “halfie” hybrid side order consisting of both onion rings and fries.

Kohler said franchise owners can set their own prices for combo meals, each of which consists of a main dish, a side order and beverage, but not the bargain-priced “value meal” items.

“We can’t play with that,” he said.

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Hundreds of underperforming locations to close

The CEO of Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the Toronto-based parent company of Burger King, said last June the $400 million infrastructure and technology reinvestment plan was starting to help franchisees realize higher profits.

This came six months after a Burger King franchisee with 90 restaurants filed for bankruptcy protection and one month after RBI said they expect to close 300 to 400 underperforming locations before the end of 2023, according to CNBC.

Kohler says he’s been through the experience of having to close an underperforming location.

“We had to close a couple in New Hampshire,” he said, adding that “there are only so many millions (of dollars) to go around.”

Other chain food brands owned by RBI include Popeyes, Firehouse Subs and Tim Hortons, the latter being the largest quick service restaurant chain in Canada.

Vibrant Route 44 commercial corridor

Dick Shafer lives within a mile of the Winthrop Street Burger King.

The retired Taunton economic development director continues to chair the city’s employment task force and is project manager for the non-profit Taunton Development Corporation, which promotes and develops Myles Standish Industrial Park and Liberty & Union Industrial Park.

Shafer, 76, said he’s not surprised the Burger King is getting more than just a facelift.

“As these old buildings go, they get tired and need some upgrades,” he said.

Shafer said the stretch of Winthrop Street between Warner Boulevard and Highland Street has over the years become known for a fairly vibrant mixture of restaurants.

In addition to Burger King and McDonald’s, he said Yamato Japanese Steakhouse and Kinfolks BBQ help provide culinary diversity.

And a mile further west on Route 44 La Familia Restaurant, known for its Italian fare, has established itself as a popular lunch and dinner destination.

“I’m happy to see these renovations,” at Burger King, Shafer said. “I think it’s a positive thing.”

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Taunton Route 44 Burger King just has drive thru during $1M renovation