The rumour mill has spun for years — and gone into overdrive the past few months — that a Wendy’s restaurant is coming to Moose Jaw with its popular, never frozen burger patties.
Well, those fresh rumours are true.
The Moose Jaw Express has been investigating for the past couple of weeks after rumours about the phantom restaurant seemed to grow more intense.
One hard piece of evidence that popped up was contractors began pouring a concrete foundation on the site of the old Bonanza restaurant at 1707 Main Street North near Superstore in late July. City hall later confirmed in an email that it had issued a building permit for a restaurant there.
One business owner the Express spoke to Johnny Beam at Taco Time, with the news outlet asking whether he knew the name and number of the new Wendy’s owner. Beam said he would contact his friend to see whether he wanted that information public.
Beam later told the Express, “I reached out to my friend and he does not want his name out public yet. But he will confirm that Wendy’s is being built right now.”
Through some sleuthing, the Express has confirmed that the business owner’s name is Scott White in Saskatoon. According to his LinkedIn page, he is a franchise director with TDB Holdings Ltd., Wendy’s Restaurants Canada.
His page says he oversees operations and financial controls for four Wendy’s restaurants in Saskatchewan: three in Saskatoon and one in Prince Albert.
An employee at the Prince Albert location confirmed by phone that White owned the business. The Express emailed the restaurant hoping to contact White but did not hear back from him by press time. Neither did he respond to an inquiry through social media.
The Express spent a few hours recently speaking with local owners and employees of businesses about the forthcoming Wendy’s restaurant. While most knew nothing about who owned the restaurant or what it would be, one employee at the Superstore Gas Bar had plenty of information.
When asked what contractors were constructing across from the gar bar, the attendant, Ryan, said, “Yeah, a Wendy’s. The owner here, he phoned the City of Moose Jaw and flat-out asked them.
“And the construction workers, they’ve been walking over here and we’ve been chatting. In particular, one guy says, ‘Are you looking forward to having Wendy’s on your breaks?’”
The Express also spoke with a customer service representative from Wendy’s Canada, who confirmed that there is a “planned new store on Main Street North.”
“It’s a franchise. They just have basic information that it’s a planned location. There’s no names yet applied to who would be the owner. They still have to fill that out,” the customer service rep added. “So it’s still like a clean palette for now.”
It’s unknown how long construction of the new restaurant will take or when it will be open.
