Published: October 31, 2009 11:15 pm      

Sonic closes for season

Ritter’s Frozen Custard forced to shut down after three years

The LED sign has been turned off for the season and the parking lot sits empty.

For those familiar with the Sonic Drive-In restaurant chain, it may seem like an unusual sight.

Billy Frizzell, Highland Foods director of operations, confirmed the restaurant did close , but just for the season.

“The winter is a little more harsh up north than we thought,” he said. “We closed the Logansport and Marion location for the winter and will reopen when the weather breaks.”

Frizzell expects to reopen between March 1 and April 1.

The decision to close the two locations for the winter came from Highland’s managing partners and permission was received from Sonic’s corporate office.

Signs on each menu board, as well as on the drive-up menu and windows, inform customers the location is closed for the season.

After experimenting with the Marion location last winter, Frizzell said the restaurant didn’t perform as well as owners hoped it would, despite installing a heated patio.

“Some of the stores are doing well and some are not doing as well with economy,” he added.

Based off the economy in Logansport, Frizzell said the managing partners made the decision they thought was best for the business.

The Lafayette location, which is also owned by the Georgia-based franchisee, will remain open, however, this winter.

Frizzell explained there is enough population and Purdue students to help support the business in the winter months.

Highland Food still plans on opening locations in Anderson and Muncie.

The business, located at 3423 Market St., opened during the first week of March this year.

“We look forward to being a part of the community for a long time and hope the economy improves to support us.”

Unlike other seasonal restaurants, Ritter’s Frozen Custard has closed for good.

The locally-owned franchised business originally opened on Sept. 26, 2006, at 4000 E. Market.

Rachel Haselby said the decision to close the business was entirely hers, since she was the owner of the Logansport location.

“It was the hardest decision of my life,” she said. “I put everything I had into that place. I quit my previous job and worked 60 to 80 hours a week.”

Haselby said she loved the work she did and enjoyed working with all of her employees and interacting with her customers.

She had always hoped the business would be around for her children to work at when they were teenagers.

“The dream was to become successful,” she said. “We lost a lot emotionally.”

The business was the first to open in Logan Commons, after it was first built.

When it originally opened, the store had 17 employees, including an assistant manager. It served customers a choice of shakes, malts, floats, sundaes, turtle pies and frozen cakes.

In April 2008, the business expanded its menu to offer the Ciabattaria line of fresh-made sandwiches, pizza and other items, with the hopes of marketing towards the lunch-time crowd. It was the second Ritter’s restaurant in the country to add the items.

According to Haselby, the business had a good following of regular customers and business had been going well.

She said two economic factors played into her decision to close.

The first was due to a decline of sales after the Chrysler bankruptcy announcement.

“Before they announced they were having troubles, our sales were up, a lot,” she said. “It was really looking like a great year. They dropped 50 percent the first week after the announcement. We ended up down 20 percent for the year.”

The other factor was the minimum wage increase.

“It just really hurt us,” Haselby said.

When the business closed in September, Haselby had seven employees.

Haselby said she is going back to school to become a math teacher. As for future business plans, she doesn’t have any for now.

“It would be too emotional,” she said. “I don’t think I could do that again. If I did, it wouldn’t be an ice cream shop.”

The equipment located inside the business is for sale and the building space is available to sub-lease, Haselby said.

She also wants to thank everyone who supported the business over the years.

“I want to thank them because it was an experience I will never forget and will always treasure,” she said.

• Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com