Wendy's International Inc said it will reluctantly close the downtown restaurant where the US' third-largest hamburger chain began in 1969 because of sagging sales.
The iconic restaurant, which is filled with memorabilia and photographs of late Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, will close its doors at the end of business next Friday, company spokesman Denny Lynch said.
"This is a very difficult decision, but the truth is we kept it open for sentimental reasons much longer than we should have," Lynch said Friday.
Thomas, who died in 2002 of liver cancer, opened his first Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers on Nov. 15, 1969.
He named the restaurant after his eight-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, nicknamed Wendy by her siblings.
He later became a nationally known figure as a Wendy's pitchman in television commercials.
But the original restaurant, located just a few blocks from the Ohio Statehouse, is unable to generate sales at night or on the weekend, when government office buildings are closed, Lynch said.
The restaurant has no drive-thru window, has limited parking and soon will require substantial building improvements, Lynch said. The location has lost money for years, and the company can no longer justify keeping it open, he said.
No sales figures were released.
Thomas knew before he died that his first restaurant was struggling financially, Lynch said.
"I guarantee he would support this decision," Lynch said. "He recognized that a company needs to be profitable."
Employees at the restaurant will be offered jobs at other locations, Lynch said. The company has not decided if it will mark next week's closing with a farewell ceremony.
Memorabilia, including the dress that was worn by Thomas' daughter when she posed for the restaurant's logo, will be transferred to the firm's corporate offices in Dublin, Ohio, a Columbus suburb.
Wendy's operates about 6,600 restaurants in the US and abroad.
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