Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Maple Ridge has closed.
A note titled “Store Closing” stuck to the glass door of the business on the northeast corner of 222nd Street and Lougheed Highway suggested alternate KFC restaurants for their customers.
“We are sorry to be leaving your community and regret to inform you that we will be closing this restaurant as of December 19, 2021,” read the note, before thanking its customers for their patronage and support.
The restaurant has been at that location since around the early 1990s.
Neither Flori Chaykowski, with the Downtown Maple Ridge Business Improvement Association, nor Mark Vosper with the Chamber of Commerce Serving Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows, had heard the restaurant was closing down prior to Christmas.
Vosper said it was quite surprising to hear that they had shuttered.
“They have been there a long time and it is a big company to close down in Maple Ridge,” he said, wanting to know more on the background about why they left.
Chaykowski noticed a post on social media about the restaurant closing, but, she said, she never got any advance notice that they were closing shop.
She said the BIA would have been happy to support them in any way, including letting people know that they were closed.
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Last year the Boston Pizza at the Meadowtown Centre location in Pitt Meadows closed down, in addition to the iconic Bella Vita restaurant – that had been at its location along Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge for almost 50 years.
Shooters Tap House would have been celebrating 40 years in the community in 2022, but also closed its doors in 2021.
An online search for KFC in Maple Ridge has the restaurant as open. However, the phone number is out of service.
A guest service representative for the company said the restaurant is privately owned and that as of Wednesday, Dec. 29, the location had not been erased from the system and that there was no notice of closure yet.
A message to the Canadian head office for KFC went unanswered.
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