As of Aug. 29, a construction crew was hard at work tearing down the iconic red and gray tower of the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Main Street in Santa Maria. Kim Tito, an employee of owner Charles Vest, told the Sun Vest decided to close the business because there were some corporate demands that couldn’t be met. “They wanted us to redo the entire building,” Tito said, adding the task wasn’t financially feasible because of the current economic climate. But the building’s doors won’t be shut for long. Tito said Vest plans to open an independently run fish ‘n’ chips restaurant called Sharky’s within the next month. “We’re not doing the whole frozen fish thing. We’re going to have Alaskan cod, and it’ll be hand-battered,” she said. Vest’s other KFC franchise on Betteravia Road will remain open.
This article appears in Sep 1-8, 2011.
