Williams News Logo
Grand Canyon News Logo

Trusted local news leader for Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon

Taco Bell/KFC opens Monday
30 employees, with more on the way, are ready for business

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br>
Pictured from left to right is Store Manager Crystal Decknick and owners Craig and Alyson Fritsinger. The combination Taco Bell/Kentucky Fried Chicken will open Monday.

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br> Pictured from left to right is Store Manager Crystal Decknick and owners Craig and Alyson Fritsinger. The combination Taco Bell/Kentucky Fried Chicken will open Monday.

WILLIAMS - Excitement is brewing over the upcoming opening of the combination Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell restaurant along Grand Canyon Boulevard. The restaurant is slated to open Monday at 10 a.m. Regular hours will be from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, according to owners Craig and Alyson Fritsinger. The restaurant currently seats about 72 diners at a time.

"I feel that this town is a perfect place for the start of this business," Craig Fritsinger said. "This will be a family-run organization. My wife and I are involved and all my kids will be involved. It stops all of us from going on the road in the future. We want to plant right here."

There are currently about 30 employees at the restaurant, Fritsinger said, adding that he may hire another 10 employees in the near future. Many of the current employees were trained at a sister combination restaurant in Chino Valley. Fritsinger has worked as a developer in the restaurant industry for a number of years.

He said the name for a Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken combination store is "KT."

"This is the first KT that was built in the United States under this exact floor plan," Fritsinger said.

Limited landscaping has been utilized on the outside of the building for two reasons, he said.

"Number one is I want to be very water conservative and I've been working with the building department on that. Number two is I plan on putting an outdoor patio out there, too, so that will seat another approximately 20," Fritsinger said.

For long-time Williams residents, the name Fritsinger is a familiar. Craig's family, including his father Chuck Fritsinger, has had ties to the area for a number of years.

"I've been associated with Williams, probably since the latter part of the 60s, early part of the 70s. My father was a former city council member here and built a corner building for the U.S. Forestry," Fritsinger said. "I said 'It would be ideal if we were to put a Taco Bell or a KFC here,' because there to used to be a former KFC here at Pine Country. At that time, which was in excess of 20 years ago, I called Taco Bell and expressed some interest in it and they basically said there's no franchises and we're not franchising and that was it, but it had always been on the back of my mind. The development business went real well. I traveled all over the country, primarily maintaining a home here in Williams, or in Phoenix, or both places, and coming back up here every time I had a vacation or time away. Every time I came up here I said the town is just missing that Taco Bell, KFC. So I put in about three and a half year's of diligence. At this time, Pepsi Co. owned Taco Bell. What happened down the road was that Pepsi Co. sold to the Yum! Corporation and then Yum! acquired the five brands, which is the Pizza Hut, the FKC, Taco Bell, Long John Silvers and A and W Root Beer. There used to be an A and W here, too. Just being affiliated with the townspeople, I knew that something wanted to be here. So I went back to my old roots of talking to the Taco Bell Corporation and they referred me to the Yum! headquarters in Kentucky on Colonel Sanders Boulevard. They had this new concept for rural communities, which was a combo store and the combo store was two of any of the five brands. The reason why is because, in a small rural community, the financial does not makes sense - to do one. That's why KFC failed in the past. That's why A and W failed in the past, as well as other reasons, but those are the primary reasons."

Fritsinger said he wants to bring a family atmosphere to the new combination restaurant.

"What I mean by that is this town, in my opinion, needs 100 percent customer care. It's not dedicated to the people that live here locally and it's not dedicated to the tourism industry. One of the things that I am trying to train the people is (that) we have a standard in Yum! called CHAMPS. CHAMPS is cleanliness, hospitality, accuracy, maintenance, product quality and speed of service. All my people that I'm training right now, all my managers, we emphasize that over and over. Our telephone number will be posted on the wall, so if anybody wants to call us, by all means."

Alyson Fritsinger said she hopes to provide an atmosphere that will continue to bring people back to the new local restaurant.

"We're here for the people, we're here for the town. We want to make this the warmest and greatest place for them to come," she said.


Donate Report a Typo Contact