A Mid-Missouri Zaxby's franchise has abandoned plans to open a Jefferson City restaurant in the near future.
Zaxby's, a "fast-casual" restaurant chain known for its chicken-dominated menu, is based in Georgia and operates in 15 states mainly across the southeastern United States.
Mizzou Chicken Inc., a franchise owned and operated by Taylor Perry, Tracy Perry, Vergil Tudor and Richard Brady, had announced plans in June 2015 to open a Zaxby's in Jefferson City by this summer. The franchise's first location is on Cinnamon Hill Lane in Columbia.
After a search for a suitable location in Jefferson City came up fruitless, the franchise owners opted to move on for now, Taylor Perry said.
"We tried very hard there for a while. We had three different locations basically turned down," Perry said. "We couldn't wait anymore, so we decided to skip over Jefferson City for now and head down to the Lake of the Ozarks."
The franchise contract with Zaxby's required them to open their second location in the area within a certain time frame.
The new Zaxby's in Osage Beach, located on Osage Beach Parkway near Panera Bread, is set to open by Aug. 8.
Perry said the franchise still intends to open a Zaxby's in Jefferson City when the time is right.
"We definitely are planning to come back. It's just finding the right piece of land at the right price is kind of difficult," he said. "It really depends on when a piece of land comes up, and we're just not sure when that will happen."
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