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Ontario-based Keystone Restaurant Group will be opening a location in Rancho Cucamonga, across from the Ontario Mills mall, in May.
"We're a new brand in the area and of course there has been a lot of new customers wanting to see what the brand is about," said Keleni Suliafu, a representative of Keystone.
Sonic serves a wide array of food including hamburgers, hot dogs, other sandwiches, breakfast food and many drink varieties.
Keystone operates 10 other Sonic franchises in the state. The Rancho Cucamonga location is its third in Southern California; it operates locations in Victorville and Palmdale.
There are 10 Sonic locations in Southern California, including one in Anaheim owned by a different franchisee.
The group is looking to hire between 60 and 70 employees at the Rancho restaurant over the next couple of months.
The slow economy did not deter the restaurant group from pursuing the location.
"We feel we want to be able to continue to help the economy grow, not by being apprehensive because of what the market is. We want to move forward and help stimulate that," Suliafu said.
After looking for a good market to open a new location, Keystone decided the spot across the street from the Mills was a perfect opportunity.
"This is a prime location for us," Suliafu said. "The traffic flow there is right for us as well. Even though there's a lot of competitors in the area we feel we have a niche none of our other competitors have."
And patrons should expect to see employees on wheels when they skate out the orders.
"Sonic made it mandatory nationwide from corporation-owned restaurants, including all the franchisees, to go back to all the values Sonic was built on - which (includes) the skating car hops," Suliafu said.
Sonic headquarters are in Oklahoma and officials have been planning to expand their reach into Southern California for some time.
"We've had a store in Anaheim for a number of years and only recently in the past two years began to expand into the greater Los Angeles Basin," said Drew Ritger, senior vice president of business development and planning for Sonic Corp.
The corporation is planning another 30 locations in the region, assuming the economy continues to pick up. There are more than 3,500 locations nationwide.
"We've done well in Southern California," Ritger said. "We've been very pleased with how the brand has been received. Southern California is such a natural for drive-in restaurants. The climate is good generally speaking. It's a very mobile society."
Sonic Drive-In
11370 Fourth St., Rancho Cucamonga
