What will replace Petaluma's KFC and A&W?

1 minute read

Last Wednesday, with next-to-no warning, Petaluma’s Kentucky Fried Chicken/A&W fast food franchise on Washington Street let its employees go and closed the business.

A day later, as the workers at neighboring businesses admitted to a degree of shock at the suddenness of the shutdown, all signage had been removed – stacked in a pile near the garbage containers out back – and the gold-colored building with a red pyramid-like roof and trim was being steadily spray-painted a solid coat of light brown from top to bottom. The windows were covered in brown paper.

A Google search turns up a page for the business labeled “Permanently Closed,” and a perusal of KFC’s national website shows that Petaluma has been removed from the list of California cities with a Kentucky Fried Chicken operation.

That number is now 444.

On local Facebook page “I Love Petaluma!” a large number of people posted their responses, many of them offering guesses – and in some cases actual preferences – as to what might replace the fried chicken and root beer drive-up spot. The most popular names on the list include Dave’s Hot Chicken, Starbucks, Carl’s Jr., Amy’s Drive-Thru and Chick-fil-A, the latter suggestion an admittedly desperate attempt to keep Cattlemen’s steak house in town, as it has been clearly announced that once it closes on Dec. 31, it will eventually be replaced with a Chick-fil-A and other businesses.

Once a new occupant is made clear, we will report it right here.