It wasn’t easy for Bob Rich to pitch his shopping center as the ideal spot for an East Coast Wings & Grill franchise.
“I tracked them down, just like I did everything in this center,” Rich said. “They wouldn’t return my calls.”
Rich finally got an East Coast Wings & Grill employee to give him the boss’ cellphone number. He talked Jared and Seth Lucas into paying a visit to Washington, and the rest is history.
Rich is co-owner of Midtown Crossing shopping center. His partner, Charles Phillips, said the restaurant would be a great fit for the 15th Street shopping center.
“We’re really excited about it because we feel like it’s going to add a whole new dimension to the shopping center,” Phillips said.
The Lucas brothers started renovations on the corner unit of the Midtown Crossing Shopping Center, former home of the Mayflower seafood restaurant, last week. The goal is to open the restaurant July 1.
“We’re super excited to come here,” Jared said. “We’re the only restaurant of this type in this area. Right now, people have to drive to Greenville.”
East Coast Wings & Grill has two Greenville locations. There are Lucas franchises in Kinston and Goldsboro. Washington will be the fifth of the Lucas franchise.
Jared Lucas said his restaurants are different from other wings restaurants because the focus is on family dining, not the bar. East Coast Wings & Grill will have a bar with 12 draft beers on tap, but it is the menu that will keep people coming back, Lucas said.
East Coast Wings & Grill is a family restaurant that offers a menu of ribs, quesadillas, fajitas, wraps, salads, burgers and 75 varieties of chicken wings.
The restaurant will have the full NFL package and enough flat-screen TVs to show every NFL game, inside and outside.
The 60-foot-by-20-foot covered patio will have fans, lighting, outdoor heaters and its own set of wide-screen TVs to watch the big games.
“It’s going to be really nice,” Lucas said.