The Keg sets opening date for east-side location

Feb. 8, 2020

The Keg, well-known for its fried chicken, has set an opening date for its east-side location.

The new location in the former Noodles & Company spot at 5216 E. Arrowhead Parkway will open Tuesday, Feb. 18, said Vonnie Larsen, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Neil. They’ll have an invitation-only soft opening the day before.

“I think they wanted us to open now,” she said of east-side customers when The Keg announced in September that it was adding a second location. “Everyone is very excited about us coming back home on the east side.”

The West 12th Street location will remain open. The Keg has been there since 2015, but the restaurant’s earliest days were on East 10th Street. It hasn’t been on the east side, though, since the location at 26th Street and Sycamore Avenue closed in 2010.

The Larsens have a busy week ahead, with custom-made furniture arriving Monday, final work in the kitchen and city inspections. The Arrowhead Parkway restaurant will have seating for almost 100 customers.

“We’re probably looking at the same size as the one over here,” she said of West 12th. “It’s booths and tables all in one room like it’s over here.” There’s also a bar. A separate room will hold video lottery machines.

The menu will be the same, and there also will be a daily buffet from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“That’s our moneymaker there,” Larsen said.

The restaurant is still hiring for a few positions. Two of the couple’s daughters, Casie Scott and Becky Mammenga, “will go back and forth for a while (between the two locations) until we get everything going like it’s supposed to be.” Their youngest daughter, Bobbie Jo Larsen, will manage it after that.

To start, hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, but at night, “this side of the city just closes down like a door shuts, so we might adjust that.”

The Keg to expand with east-side location

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The Keg sets opening date for east-side location

One of the city’s favorites for fried chicken is getting ready to open later this month on the east side.

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