Swensons Drive-In has closed its first Cincinnati-area location, the carhop burger stand on Ohio Pike in Union Township that opened less than five years ago. The restaurant is no longer listed on the Akron-based chain's company website, and no explanation for the closure has been made public.
According to WKRC, the Union Township restaurant opened on Ohio Pike in December 2021 and was Swensons' first location in the Cincinnati market. It was built on the former site of Scallywag Tag. The chain's other area restaurant, on Madison Road in Oakley, remains open and continues to serve customers, per the same report.
Swensons was founded in Akron in 1934 and stayed close to home for decades before expanding beyond that city starting in 2016, the outlet notes. The chain is known for its carhop service, with servers bringing burgers, shakes and other menu items straight to customers' vehicles on trays designed for in-car eating. Its best-known offering is the Galley Boy, described by Swensons as a double cheeseburger featuring two unique sauces on a toasted bun and garnished with a green olive pick.
A Pattern of Growing Pains Elsewhere
The Union Township closure isn't the first time a newer Swensons location has shut down not long after opening. In Indiana, the chain's Avon restaurant closed a little over a year after it first opened its doors, according to Fox 59. That location, at 8894 U.S. Highway 36, opened on Feb. 6, 2023, as the chain's 20th location overall.
As with Union Township, the station reported that no information on exactly when or why the Avon location closed had been made available. A voicemail at the shuttered Avon restaurant told callers Swensons would continue to grow throughout the Midwest and looked forward to returning to Indianapolis.
Cincinnati Expansion Has Had Its Own Twists
Swensons' push into the Cincinnati market was part of a broader growth push that also took the chain into Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, according to sbnonline.com, which reported that under CEO Jeff Flowers the chain tripled in size from seven stands in 2015 to 21. Back in 2023, the chain's unlinked earlier Local 12 report said Swensons was planning a second Greater Cincinnati location on Madison Road in Oakley, though no opening date had been set at the time.
That Oakley restaurant is now the one keeping Swensons' presence alive in the Cincinnati area, even as the original Union Township stand disappears from the company's roster. For now, the circumstances behind the closure remain unknown, and Swensons has not issued a public statement addressing it.
