Moses Lake Wendy's packed on opening day
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Wendy's manager Sonya Miller fills and keeps tracks of orders during a very busy opening day of the company's new Moses Lake franchise.
MOSES LAKE — The first press release said 4 p.m.
That's the time Friday afternoon the new Wendy's at Yonezawa and SR 17 was supposed to open its doors to the public.
“It just happened we're able to open at the regular time (10 a.m.),” said Kevin Kinney, the director of area operations for Wenspok Resources, the Spokane-based franchisee that built and now operates the Wendy's in Moses Lake.
“The town is really supporting us,” Kinney added. “We really didn't advertise it much.”
And yet the people were there, a line of cars for the drive stretching all the way to Yonezawa, and at one point, a line of people for walk-in ordering extending all the way out the door.
It was a busy first day for a restaurant the community has been eagerly awaiting for more than a year, when the first advertisements for staff appeared on Indeed.com and the building plans showed up at Moses Lake City Hall.
“I already got my double cheeseburger,” said Deandre Jones, a longtime Moses Lake resident. “I'm just enjoying it, enjoying that we've got a Wendy's now.”
“I've been here in Moses Lake for about 30 years, been waiting for this for a long, long time,” Jones added. “We're just glad that it's open.”
“It's nice not to have to drive all the way to the Tri-Cities for this,” added Kalyssa Davis, who stood waiting in line in her Domino's Pizza uniform.
The Wendy's in Moses Lake seats 58 and is what Wenspok calls a “smart” design, and in addition to the regular features, it comes complete with a fireplace and a couple of couches, as well as Wi-Fi and more parking than you'd think possible on that corner lot between Tacos El Rey and Yonezawa.
According to Kinney, the new restaurant currently employs 40 people to keep it fully staffed from the normal opening time of 10 a.m. to the midnight closing, seven days a week. It took a lot of planning and organizing to bring Wendy's to Moses Lake.
“We had to train people at other locations, physically transport them to Yakima, the Tri-Cities and Ellensburg, to work in a Wendy's because we didn't have one in town,” Kinney added.
Wenspok owns and operates more than 30 Wendy's franchises in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California. Kinney is the area manager for central Washington and a portion of northern Oregon, and said he will be in Moses Lake “a couple of time a week” to oversee operations here.
And Wenspok seems to expect good things to come from its new franchise here serving both residents and hungry travelers on I-90.
“The outpouring from the community has been tremendous,” he said.
There will still be a formal grand opening on Friday, Dec. 14, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 12:30 p.m.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.