Mike Nugent said the decision for the popular restaurant to move from downtown Buffalo to a former Perkins Restaurant site on McKinley Parkway in Hamburg is absolutely not a knock on the city or the Theatre District.
Anything but.
The move is a development litmus test for the Syracuse-based chain, best known for its ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. It will be its first suburban site.
“For us to have that opportunity to explore some of those different markets outside of the urban centers, it's appealing to us as well, because I don't know how many people are really coming and venturing back into this city,” Nugent said. “So I think if we can kind of model this first Dino suburban restaurant to see if there are any legs, it would be something we would entertain in the future for growth.”
With the move, Dinosaur BBQ will have more on-site parking and room for outdoor patios, and, as a bonus, it will be not too far from Highmark Stadium.
Taken together, it will add to a higher traffic count.
“The traffic count is great. With the activity that's going on in our neighborhood right down the road with the new stadium being built, there's a lot of parking for us, which is pretty rare for a Dinosaur BBQ, and the size of the building was a good fit for us as well. So made a lot of sense,” Nugent said.
Nugent did say the decision to leave downtown Buffalo, where Dinosaur BBQ has been since 2014, was a “bittersweet one and not one taken lightly.”
“We really enjoyed our time in downtown Buffalo and our location in the community. They have been nothing but fantastic to us and it's definitely bittersweet. It was definitely a difficult thing for us to kind of go through,” Nugent said. “At the end of the day, I think we learned a lot from the community in Buffalo and we met so many fantastic people and so many loyal guests, the whole experience for us has just been excellent.”
Dinosaur BBQ will close its 301 Franklin Street site on Feb. 28 and the Hamburg location should be open by late summer or early fall.
Buffalo Development Corp., owners of the 301 Franklin Street building, have started marketing the property.
