Hear ye! Hear ye! A new king is coming to town, much to the excitement of many Newmarket residents.
Burger King is opening in the new plaza at Harry Walker Parkway and Davis Drive by May 1, Burger King Canada confirmed.
Since January, residents have been posting about the pending opening Burger King in community Facebook groups, regularly asking when it's going to be open and providing updates on the construction. Some posts have garnered more than 100 excited comments.
"There's just been so much promotion on on the community group and people all excited about it," said resident Alan Scott. "It's kind of interesting."
Scott decided to capitalize on the hype for an April Fool's Day prank and on Saturday, April 1 posted that the Burger King was having an invite-only soft opening that day. However, he has since confirmed it was all a joke and he doesn't have any information about the opening.
"I know some people on there, so I was like, you know, I'm going to play it up a little bit just to see," he said.
"I'm not that big of a fast food guy, but I'll probably go just because of the hype and everybody's excited," he added.
The excitement has been heard all the way to Burger King's head office.
"We have received nothing but positive responses on this new location and look forward to building connections with our guests in the Newmarket community for years to come," said Matt Wright, general manager at Burger King Canada.
He said many people are fans because of the fast-food outlet's unique menu items like chicken fries and dill pickle nuggets and, of course, the flagship burger.
"The first thing that comes to most people’s mind when they think of Burger King is the iconic Whopper sandwich with the flame-grilled taste they can’t find anywhere else," he said.
Sam Saberi, Aurora restaurant owner and self-proclaimed Burger King fanatic, agreed that the Whopper is what keeps him coming back.
He used to go to the former Burger King in Aurora, on Yonge Street near Dunning Avenue when he was in high school, especially on Wednesdays when he would enjoy a two for $5 Whopper deal.
"Ever since I was a kid, I was obsessed with it. I don’t know what it is,” he said.
Saberi did say that the patty on the burger is a big draw, especially when compared with burgers at other fast-food joints.
"It’s the size of the patty, you can’t beat it,” he said.
Now as an adult, he still eats Burger King every other week. He goes to the location in Richmond Hill because it's close to where he gets his hair cut.
"I’ve been doing a tradition: a whopper and a haircut,” he said.
Saberi has owned Tina's Grill since 2019. It has wings, burgers, and regular dinner specials. Over the past few years, he has been a big proponent of local businesses and supporting the community.
However, he said it's still important to support restaurants even if they are part of chains or franchises because they are often owned or staffed by local people.
"They've got to survive as much as we do. Just because they bought a franchise doesn’t mean we have to look down on them,” he said.
In the case of this new Burger King location, it is owned by Redberry Restaurants, which is the largest Burger King franchisee in Canada.
It owns a large number of Burger King, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut locations, including the Burger King in Richmond Hill that Saberi visits regularly.
The only other Burger King close to Newmarket currently is in Bradford, so customers either have to drive north or south to get their fix.
"Newmarket is a great community where our brand doesn’t currently have a presence, so this market was a priority in our expansion plans at Burger King," said Wright about why this particular location was chosen.
While Saberi is hoping and begging for them to bring one to Aurora as well, he said he is 100 per cent looking forward to visiting the new location in Newmarket when it opens.
"It’s cheap, it’s great and it tastes amazing. Why not support it?” he said.
