Midtown Carl's Jr. Closes Months After Opening

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — One of New York City's newest fast food restaurants has closed just months after opening its first location in Midtown Manhattan.

The Carl's Jr. on Seventh Avenue and West 33rd Street shut its doors on June 3, a spokesman for CKE Restaurants — the company that franchises Carl's Jr. — confirmed. The spokesman did not provide details on why the restaurant closed.

When the burger chain announced it would be opening in Midtown its Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Jenkins said in a statement: "We know New Yorkers are a tough burger crowd, but we’re confident that the Happy Star will outshine the competition."

The Carl's Jr. location opened in late January, drawing both long lines and animal-rights protesters. Restaurant employees even had to deployed barriers to effectively control the crowd yearning to get its hands on the first signature "thickburgers" served up in New York City.

Not everyone who attended the Carl's Jr. debut in Midtown was happy about the new restaurant. Animal rights activists with The Humane League attempted to crash the Carl's Jr. party by picketing the new store and handing out pamphlets about the chain's treatment of its chickens. The protest group called on CKE Restaurants to adopt basic welfare guides for the chickens in its supply chain.

New Yorkers may know Carl's Jr. best for its ads featuring bikini models brandishing comically large sandwiches or its former chief executive Andrew Puzder. Puzder was nominated by Donald Trump to serve as the United States Secretary of Labor, but eventually withdrew from consideration after losing the support of many Republican Senators.

Photo by David Allen/Patch