Another restaurant will soon be moving in to take the place of the Liberty Street Ale House in Franklin, which closed in the final days of 2023.
Taco Inc., a Mexican restaurant chain based in Punxsutawney, will be opening a location later this year in the former Ale House space in the Franklin Quality Inn and Conference Center.
“We just signed the contract (last week),” said George Singh, who co-owns the Quality Inn with his brother, Sunny. “Most likely, the target date for opening is June 1, if everything goes to plan.”
Franklin will be the fifth location for the chain.
The brothers said that when the Ale House closed, even without advertising, “we were getting phone calls left and right with people interested in leasing the space,” George Singh said. Taco Inc. was one of those calls.
The Singhs said they visited the restaurant’s other locations before leasing to make sure it would be a good fit for the hotel and the community, and they are now confident it will be.
“The other four locations are in a similar type of community, and they’re very successful,” George Singh said, citing a good price point for the sit-down restaurant, and its being open for lunch and dinner.
He noted Franklin does not currently have a Mexican restaurant.
Hotel guests have been asking about a restaurant in the hotel ever since the Ale House closed, George Singh said.
Now with Taco Inc. slated to move in, “we’re getting a lot of good feedback from the community,” he said.
He noted that while the Ale House had run both the bar and restaurant and a banquet space in the hotel, Taco Inc. will not be running the banquet facility.
Hotel ownership is therefore now interviewing other tenants to run the banquet space, and George Singh said the hope is to find one in the next few weeks, but “we’re looking for the right fit. We’re not in a rush.”
The banquet space can accommodate up to 400 people and can host events such as corporate meetings and conferences, weddings, reunions and holiday events, he said.
