This fast food spot returns to Middletown TODAY after more than a decade

Middletown’s newest eatery opens on Monday.

Hardee’s will return to Middletown after an absence of more than a decade in the city.

The new restaurant on South Breiel Boulevard opens Monday, said Leslie Young, PRG vice president of operations. It will be the company’s ninth location.

“We’re really excited to open in Middletown,” she said.

Young, who started as a Hardee’s drive-thru cashier 31 years ago, said there was a high demand to bring franchises back to Middletown and Hamilton. She said PRG opened its Hamilton store on Jan. 8 at 1510 S. Erie Blvd. She said the Middletown store will be the third it has opened in the last three months, including a location in Columbus.

“There was a Hardee’s in both towns before, and the company periodically revisits communities where they used to operate in past,” she said. “There was a high demand for these locations.”

According to this new organization’s archives, the previous Hardee’s location in Middletown was located on Towne Boulevard and was razed along with another restaurant in 2006 for the Kroger Marketplace that opened in 2007.

Young said each of the new restaurants represent a $1.7 million investment in the community and will have about 75 full- and part-time employees. She said the general managers for both of the new restaurants are from the area. She said they are still looking to hire more employees and those interested can apply online to prghd.com.

She said people are drawn to Hardee’s because of their thick Angus hamburgers, biscuits made from scratch and chicken tenders that are breaded and battered at each store.

“We have a lot of things that are made from scratch,” Young said.

She described the opening in Hamilton as “remarkable” and added that chicken tenders and Mushroom Swiss burgers are the best-selling menu items at the Hamilton store.

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