The Chain Gang

Brooklyn Has a Checkered Future

Checkers didn’t even exist here until fairly recently, but it now has two gleaming locations in Flatbush (at 970 Flatbush Avenue and 2115 Nostrand Avenue) and another at 111 Court Street. And the chain has announced it’s opening another store in Bed-Stuy (at 491 Nostrand Avenue) this month, followed by three more Brooklyn stores in the next five years. You just keep opening in Manhattan, Five Guys — Checkers is taking over central BK! Oh, and speaking of Five Guys, Josh Ozersky writes on Eat Like a Man that it and In-N-Out are “mediocre, over-hyped, and ultimately half-assed chains,” which makes us wonder how, some time ago, he could’ve ranked a Five Guys burger above Burger Shop and P.J. Clarke’s in a blind tasting. As far as fast-food burgers go, consider us among the brainwashed.

Brooklyn Has a Checkered Future