by Wesley Harris
Papa John’s Pizza employees closing up one night recently were met with workers changing out the locks and removing signage. The longtime pizza joint on West California Avenue has completely closed.
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Just down the street, KFC—formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken—has also closed its doors. KFC first came to Ruston in 1968, making it one of the city’s longest-running restaurants. Locals took to social media to speculate on the closure, reminiscing on the days when Bill Best ran the operation with such generosity and humility. Ruston’s annual humanitarian award is in memory of Best for his compassion for the community.
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Scooter’s Coffee, an Omaha, Nebraska-based drive-thru coffee franchise, is expanding into northwest Louisiana and east Texas with its Ruston store currently under construction at 1610 North Trenton. The brand offers organic hot and iced teas, premium-grade brewed coffee, cold brew, breakfast items, and a kids’ menu.
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If Hale and Glen Shadow, longtime owners of the Ruston Coca-Cola Bottling Company, were still with us, I think they would be pleased to hear the parent company in Atlanta is reintroducing the use of cane sugar in some of their products, replacing high-fructose corn syrup. Coke switched from cane sugar to corn syrup as a cheaper alternative in the 1980s. Other countries like Mexico have always stuck with cane sugar and many cola drinkers insist it’s better than the corn version.
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A new area code is being added to North Louisiana, not to replace ‘318’ but in addition to it. The change is necessary to add to the supply of new phone numbers for local growth. Soon you will have to dial the local area code in addition to the seven-digit number. See our upcoming article.
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Interesting to note the improvements to the Tarbutton Road interchange in anticipation of the new Buc-ee’s will include a slew of traffic lights while currently motorists risk their lives trying to pull out onto Cooktown Road from exit ramps and service roads that lack similar safety measures. However, the upcoming new Cooktown Bridge will include roundabouts on both the north and south sides of I-20 that will help with these current issues.
