If you love roast beef sandwiches, like you really, really love them, we've got some pretty stellar information for you.
To all the roast beef and Arby's lovers in New York City, you're about to have your days more than made. The famed sandwich fast food joint is opening a full-service outpost in NYC, not too far from Chick-fil-A's first full-service branch in NYC.
Yes, you heard us right. Arby's is coming to Midtown Manhattan.
Apparently, us getting Chick-fil-A was not enough.
The new Arby's will lay its hat down at 40th Street and Eighth Avenue. Or, restaurants don't have hats, but that's where the store will be.
Arby's made this announcement on the same day they announced that their already-open stores jumped 9.6% in sales in the quarter that ended on September 30th.
Their 9.6% jump is more than 7% higher than the average comparable-store sales of 40 fast-food restaurants tracked by the NPD Group, a consumer research firm, according to the NY Times.
"Over half our sales growth came through traffic growth, which I'm particularly pleased with because traffic is the elusive element in our industry right now," said chief executive of Arby's Restaurant Group Paul Brown.
Brown didn't announce the precise date we'd be able to munch into a thinly sliced, delicious bite of roast beef sandwich. He left the open date much more ambiguous and elusive, saying the new store would open in a "few weeks."
Here are some fun Arby's facts, though, in lieu of a precise opening date. Arby's is majority-owned by the Roark Capital Group, which also owns Hardee's, Cinnabon, and Carvel.
Brown says Arby's is on track to generate $4 billion in sales throughout around 3,400 stores by 2018. So we guess we know who'll be moving into all those luxury high rises.
Here's another fun tidbit. Unlike Chick-fil-A, this new Midtown Arby's is not Manhattan's first-ever-Arby's. There was one in the Manhattan Mall food court, but sadly (or thankfully, depending on how you feel about a chain that proclaims, "We Have the Meats"), it closed in 2008.
So what are we most excited to munch on when Arby's makes its return? Have you heard about those sliders, the tiny versions of its sandwiches? Uh, so yeah. We're stoked about those. We also can't wait to get our hands on their "loaded" Italian sub with brown sugar bacon, which can be ours for $4.99.
We don't know when the store will open exactly, but maybe we'll even periscope ourselves eating sandwiches for your viewing delight again, like we did for Chick-fil-A's opening. Then we'll periscope us having heart attacks, fighting back vomit, and dying a little bit faster than anyone else.
Check out 9 Best Lunch Spots in Midtown Manhattan.
[via NY Times]
[Feature Image Courtesy DietHood]