New restaurant moving into the former Arby’s on Brown Street will be first of its kind

Franchise owner says new eatery will be a concept that will differ from other Lee’s Famous Recipe locations
Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is a new concept for a restaurant that will replace Arby’s on Brown Street near UD. File photo by LISA POWELL / STAFF

Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is a new concept for a restaurant that will replace Arby’s on Brown Street near UD. File photo by LISA POWELL / STAFF

The new restaurant under development in the former Arby's space at 1200 Brown St. adjacent to the University of Dayton will be operated by the franchisees for Dayton-area Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken restaurants, but it will be a new concept that will differ from the local chicken chain's existing locations, one of the franchise owners told this news outlet today.

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And the new restaurant also will mark a return of sorts of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken to the Brown Street retail strip, where one of its restaurants operated for several years close to where its new restaurant is going. That restaurant shut down in the mid-2000s, according to Ken Riddle, co-owner of Far Hills Development LLC, the franchisee of Dayton-area Lee’s Famous Recipe locations since 2014.

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“We've been a sponsor at UD Arena for years now, and we felt that a location on Brown Street near the UD campus made sense for us,” Riddle said.

Plans are still being finalized for the new-concept restaurant, Riddle said. Details will be released closer to opening day, he said.

The Arby’s restaurant at 1200 Brown St. shut down after the close of business Saturday night, Dec. 29.

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The menu board of the former Arby's on Brown Street, which will soon be a new-concept chicken restaurant from Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken. MARK FISHER/STAFF

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