The Sonic Drive-In at 630 Washington Street in Stoughton has closed for good, its spot in the Stoughton Town Center Plaza now empty after a decade serving up burgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, fries, onion rings, and shakes along the busy Route 138 corridor.
The closure was first reported by Boston Restaurant Talk, which noted that Sonic's own website has removed the Stoughton, Washington Street outlet from its store locator, confirming the restaurant is no longer in business. The site had been a fixture at that address since 2016, when it replaced a longtime Friendly's restaurant on the same property, according to Patch.
Getting the Stoughton store built was no small undertaking. New England Construction completed the buildout in late 2016 for franchisee Shree Prayosha LLC at a contract value of $1.2 million, delivering two drive-thru lanes, nine drive-in stalls, and 32 indoor seats, per the same Patch report. That kind of investment underscores just how much confidence there once was in Sonic's Massachusetts ambitions.
A Chain That Never Hit Its Massachusetts Targets
Sonic first arrived in the Bay State in August 2009, opening its debut Massachusetts location on Route 1 at 55 Newbury Street in Peabody, according to the Diner Hotline Weblog. Six years later, the chain announced plans to build as many as 40 drive-in locations across Massachusetts by 2020. That expansion never materialized, and by 2024 the state was home to just four active Sonic restaurants, as reported by Live 95.9.
Now, with Stoughton gone, Sonic's own online directory lists only three restaurants still operating statewide: Peabody, Somerset, and Springfield. Boston Restaurant Talk's reporting on the closure also noted that Sonic locations in Lawrence and Wilmington have already shut down, effectively shrinking the chain's Eastern Massachusetts presence back to the same Peabody store where it all began 17 years ago.
The Wilmington closure has its own history — that Main Street location first suspended operations in March 2017 before eventually shutting down, according to Wilmington Apple. Stoughton's shutdown fits into that same pattern of contraction across the region.
Steady Foot Traffic Didn't Save the Location
The closure isn't obviously tied to a lack of customers. Commercial real estate foot-traffic analytics from Realmo estimated the Stoughton Sonic was drawing approximately 13,679 customer visits per month in 2026 before it shut its doors, suggesting the drive-in still had a loyal local following right up until the end.
Sonic is owned by Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, which acquired the chain in December 2018 for $2.3 billion as part of a portfolio that also includes Arby's, Dunkin', Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John's, and Baskin-Robbins, according to Inspire Brands. That acquisition happened amid broader consolidation across fast-food franchising, as drive-in concepts faced stiff competition from quick-service giants like McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King, as Forbes reported at the time.
From Oklahoma Roots to a Shrinking New England Footprint
Sonic's carhop-and-drive-in format traces back to 1953, when the chain launched in Shawnee, Oklahoma, as Top Hat Drive-In before eventually growing to more than 3,400 locations nationwide, per Wikipedia. That national scale makes Massachusetts's struggles all the more notable — a state that once expected 40 Sonic locations is now down to three.
Boston Restaurant Talk, a news-based journal covering the Boston restaurant scene, has covered the Stoughton closure as part of its ongoing tracking of the region's dining landscape. The site is run by Marc, who also founded Boston's Hidden Restaurants.
