Owners of Kowloon win approval to add drive-thru to restaurant redesign

Detailed summary

The Wong family, owners of the historic pan-Asian restaurant, secured approval last week to open a pair of drive-thrus during a forthcoming redevelopment project that will…

The Route 1 landmark Kowloon is downsizing, but the redesigned restaurant will have something the original, A-frame building never had; a drive-thru.

The Wong family, owners of the historic pan-Asian restaurant, secured approval last week to open a pair of drive-thrus during a forthcoming redevelopment project that will demolish the old restaurant to make way for an apartment complex.

The drive-thrus will not allow customers to order on site, the project’s engineer told officials in Saugus, and will only serve customers who ordered ahead for pick-up.

The approval comes more than a year after the family announced plans to replace the sprawling restaurant with two six-story apartment complexes and a smaller version of the restaurant, with roughly one third of the seating.

At a Nov. 4 selectmen’s meeting, engineer Paul Marchionda said the first apartment building will be built while the restaurant is still standing. This building will be home to a smaller, temporary version of the restaurant with a drive-thru to accommodate more visitors.

After the original restaurant is demolished, the second apartment building will feature a permanent Kowloon that will serve between 300 and 400 patrons. The current restaurant seats about 1,200 people.

When the second building is ready, the Kowloon drive thru will be moved there and the old space can be leased to another business, such as a bank.

“The point of these drive-thrus, we need to explain, is it’s not typical like a McDonald’s or Dunkin Donuts, people don’t just drive up and order something,” Marchionda said. “They’ve got to either [order] online or call ahead and have a specified time to pick up their order.”

Some members of the board expressed concerns about potential traffic issues that drive-thru service might cause, but ultimately approved the request, noting that the project has already experienced significant delays.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Boston Globe. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.