Another Popeyes coming to Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - When Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen opened its first Cedar Rapids location earlier this year, traffic backed up for days on Blairs Ferry Road as long lines of drive-through customers snaked out onto the busy street awaiting their orders. Now as the second Cedar Rapids location makes plans to open, its owner does not anticipate a repeat of the traffic snarl - at least not for long.

The second location is planned for E Avenue and Edgewood Road NW. The sole entrance and exit will be on E Avenue NW.

'We think there will be some excitement the first week or two, but I don't think it will be like the Blairs Ferry Road store because there's already a Popeyes in Cedar Rapids,” said Jeff Braverman, owner of Half Moon LLC of Iowa City. 'There is room for more than the six cars shown on the site plan to queue for the drive-up window.”

A house and a former laundromat on the property will be demolished to make way for a 60-seat restaurant and eventually another retail building, possibly a restaurant.

'We would like to break ground next Monday, depending on how quickly we can get the necessary permits and get the utilities shut off to the site,” Braverman said. 'It will be very similar to the Blairs Ferry Road store in terms of the seating and guest area in the front of the house, but the kitchen will be a little bigger. We're going to add some storage space and room to walk around. It's been too tight,”

Braverman said the 2,900-square-foot restaurant will employ about 40 people. He said construction will take roughly 110 days, with the restaurant opening in mid-November or early December.

Unlike the Popeyes at 370 Blairs Ferry Road NE, which was constructed with prefabricated panels, the new Popeyes will be built on site, according to Braverman.

'Because we're starting earlier in the construction season, we can do most of the framing and exterior work on site,” he said. 'We trucked in the panels on Blairs Ferry because we started so late in the year. Even though it cost us more because of transportation costs, it got the building done a lot quicker.”

Braverman said he will be able to offer a second site on the property to another user when he knows all of his development costs. The site plan approved by the city includes a retaining wall along the southern edge of the property as well as required parking spaces and landscaping.

Atlanta-based Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen operates and franchises more than 2,000 Popeyes restaurants worldwide. The company's New Orleans-style menu features spicy chicken, chicken tenders, fried shrimp and other seafood, as well as jambalaya, red beans and rice and other regional items.