Golden Krust has done it again; hopefully they will get it right the 111th time around. In a matter of two years Golden Krust has closed and opened a location on the same street. The first restaurant was located on 161st Street on Grand Concourse that was shut down in early 2006 and in September of 2007 the Franchise started the construction of a new location on 161st Street on Gerard Avenue.
With 111 restaurants across eight states, Golden Krust has become the official masters of closing and reopening a restaurant. Founder, Lowell Hawthorne has 10 siblings, so it comes as no surprise when I step into a Golden Krust restaurant in the Bronx and the owner’s last name is either Hawthorne or Clark. The franchise is an open one but I have to say that even when visiting a relative in Suffern, NY the Golden Krust in that neighborhood was owned by a member or the Clark. When I work at a Golden Krust in 2004 in Yonkers, the restaurant was owned by Mrs. Clark, the sister of Lowell Hawthorne, and when she sold the restaurant in 2006, it was sold to her cousin, a Hawthorne. The Golden Krust that reigned on 23rd Street for about two years was also owned by a member of the Hawthorne family.
It currently stands that there is not any one zip code in the Bronx that does not have a Golden Krust restaurant in its area. Golden Krust is so obsessed with franchise numbers that they fail to do a proper market analysis of the intended area and a proper financial assessment of its future location owner.