From banking to burgers: Retro restaurant is coming to shuttered Bristol Township building

Posted by Admin November 29, 2024 Shopping

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From bank to burgers? A building that was once a Bank of America in Bristol Township could soon get a retro makeover, Americana-style.

The Philly-based Nifty Fifty’s restaurant chain is seeking approval to open one of its 1950s-themed eateries at 501 S. Oxford Valley Road, now a shuttered Bank of America.

The venture by Retro Eats LLC moved forward earlier this month when franchisee owner Anthony Carotenuto, sought and received a zoning tweak that allows him to have 38 parking spaces rather than the required 82 spaces.

There isn’t room at the property located in the Queen Anne Plaza Shopping Center, home to Arby’s, Wings to Go and longtime local faves Julio’s Pizza and Café Ferraro. Shop Rite is the plaza’s big anchor.

Carotenuto, who franchises the Warminster Nifty Fifty’s, allayed concerns submitted by the shopping plaza’s owner, Longview Property Group, that the restaurant employees and customers will park in spaces that are set aside for other tenants, per lease agreements.

“We don’t want customers complaining about parking, and we definitely don’t want customers parking in somebody else’s spaces. That’s something we won’t tolerate, either,” he told the township Zoning Hearing Board.

Arne Andersen, Longview Property Group’s executive vice president, through his lawyer, took issue with Nifty Fifty’s request, telling the board that the busy shopping plaza is fully rented and that parking is at a premium spaces are for contracted clients. He doubts that a 4,000 square foot, 90-seat restaurant would need just 38 spaces.

But Carotenuto’s lawyer, Bryce H. McGuigan, assured the board 38 was the right number. He compared it to the Nifty Fifty’s in Warminster.

“On its greatest day, its greatest demand, Saturday afternoon, they’re never using more than 26-27 spaces, and that includes employees. That’s on their greatest day and this is designed to be a very similar restaurant,” he said.

Andersen, through his lawyer, offered a compromise: screen off the restaurant property from the shopping center’s parking lot with a four-foot tall, metal fence “that’s tasteful.” Also, place “No Parking” signs in areas reserved for other tenants.

Carentenuto was OK with that. But Andersen adamantly turned down his suggestion to use less expensive arborvitae trees to screen off the parking lot, or to share the cost of a tasteful metal fence.

After some discussion, the compromise was accepted and the board approved the parking space tweak. Nifty Fifty’s must still go through land development.

The Philly-area chain was launched by Leo McGlynn in 1987, whose “passion for cooking stemming from his childhood, combined with a desire to provide deliciously thick and enjoyable malts and milkshakes and fresh food similar to the timeless soda shop recipes of the ’50s … Nifty Fifty’s was opened to give all of our customers the opportunity to experience the 1950s,” according to the company’s web site.

When the Fairless Hills store opens, it will be the chain’s ninth location. A Bensalem Nifty Fifty’s shop on Street Road burned in a two-alarm fire in 2013. It was not reopened.

JD Mullane can be reached at jmullane@couriertimes.com.