KFC’s grand opening last week, die-hard chicken fans camped out in the restaurant’s drive-thru off Sharon Avenue in Houghton. (Photo courtesy of Missy Buschell via the Houghton Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Even with the anticipation that it would be busy, business at the new KFC in Houghton far exceeded expectations, a member of the franchise’s ownership group said.

Houghton’s new branch on Sharon Avenue opened last Monday. Lines started forming the day before, as people camped out hoping to win a prize of free KFC meals for a year.

“We opened up a location downstate in April that’s extremely successful and busy for us, and it’s even far surpassed that,” said Aaron Humphrey, director of operations for Lucky Dining, a family franchise group downstate that operates the Houghton restaurant and others. “It’s really blowing it out of the water not only for us being a smaller KFC franchisee, but by KFC standards as well.”

Humphrey said the pre-opening publicity helped, as did the pent-up demand. A previous KFC/John Long Silver’s operated in the current Border Grill building before closing a decade ago.

“It’s a smaller community so when something new comes to town, the town probably rallies around that and is excited for that,” Humphrey said.

The restaurant is making some accommodations to deal with demand. It closed early on Friday. Hours have also been temporarily shortened to 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. to ensure the restaurant has enough product to get through the day, he said.

The KFC gets two shipments a week of its chicken, which comes from Milwaukee, Humphrey said.

“We haven’t been running out of product during shift, but we needed to get ahead of things and work with distributors so we can get a bigger truck and meet what’s demanded,” he said.

Plans are for normal hours to return when the initial sales spike subsides.

“The last thing we want to do is turn away business, especially when we hear of people driving from 40 minutes away,” Humphrey said.

To avoid backups on the road, cars are temporarily being allowed to park on the sidewalk along Sharon Avenue west of M-26. At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, City Manager Eric Waara said that would continue temporarily as long as the restaurant continues seeing a high level of traffic.

Thirty people are employed by the restaurant, Humphrey said.

The restaurant is located off of Sharon Avenue adjacent to Evangel Baptist Church and Tadych’s Marketplace. The KFC had originally been planned to open in 2022, but construction was delayed by a series of lawsuits.

Daniel G. Kamin, LLC, the owners of the Tadych’s property, initially sued over proposed curbing at the restaurant, which they argued would violate a cross-easement agreement. The Houghton County Circuit Court upheld the site plan approval in 2022. The appeal is currently at the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Humphrey said the suit would have no impact on operations at the restaurant.

In a short oral argument session on Oct. 10, Roger Safford, attorney for the KFC, said Kamin appealed the dismissal of his motions, but not the granting of KFC’s. That enabled the restaurant to begin construction, and to open the day before, he said.

“He has waived his right to do anything about the construction or operation of the restaurant, just damages,” he said.

Evangel filed a separate suit in Houghton County earlier this year, this one alleging the construction of the restaurant itself violated the 1993 cross-easement agreement. That suit was dismissed with prejudice in September, meaning it can’t be retried.

Humphrey said he couldn’t have asked for a better response from the community.

“Not only has everyone come out — we’ve been lined up inside and out since we opened, really — but the reception has been welcoming and warm,” he said. “People have been patient when they’ve had to wait in line, or things have been longer than they wanted.”