Checkers & Rally’s Welcomes New Restaurant Ownership for Five Locations in Memphis

With more than 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry, Farhana Ali, owner of FAD Foods, LLC, has built a strong track record operating Church’s Chicken, Burger King, and Checkers & Rally’s restaurants across the country. She owns and operates more than 25 restaurants nationwide and is deeply committed to delivering quality food, excellent guest service, and giving back to the communities her restaurants serve. Supporting her vision, Alvaro Sauma serves as director of operations for FAD Foods, overseeing 14 Church’s Chicken restaurants across Kansas and Missouri and helping drive growth within the Checkers & Rally’s system.

Since becoming a franchisee in 2019, Sauma has helped expand the portfolio across multiple markets, including Chicago and Northwest Indiana. With the addition of the Memphis restaurants, FAD Foods, LLC now owns and operates 10 Checkers & Rally’s locations.

“We’re proud to bring new ownership to these Memphis locations and invest in the communities they serve,” Ali said. “Our goal is to provide great food, fresh restaurants, and a convenient, welcoming experience for every guest. From faster drive-thru service to updated technology, we want every visit to be easy, enjoyable, and reliable for the whole community.”

The Memphis restaurants will undergo reimages designed to align with Checkers & Rally’s refreshed branding and updated look, creating a more modern and engaging experience for guests. These updates will focus on enhancing the overall atmosphere and convenience, while continuing to deliver the bold flavors, famous fries, and fan favorites that Checkers & Rally’s has always been known for. By blending a fresh new design with the food guests already love, the reimaged restaurants aim to create an experience that feels both familiar and exciting for the Memphis community.

“Farhana and Alvaro bring the expertise and energy needed to deliver the fast, fun, and craveable experience Checkers & Rally’s is known for,” said Robert Bhagwandat, Senior Director of Franchise Development at Checkers Drive-In Restaurants. “With their focus on modernizing these Memphis locations and engaging the community, we’re confident they’ll continue to strengthen the brand and create memorable experiences for every guest.”

Merged in 1999 to form one concept, Checkers & Rally’s primarily operate through a proven franchise model, in which owners benefit from brand recognition, operational support, and marketing resources. Potential franchise prospects can develop on less than half of an acre, which is half the size of competing drive-thru concepts. Checkers and Rally’s current strategy is targeting select markets throughout the United States, particularly in South and Central Wisconsin, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Las Vegas, Florida, and South Carolina.

Based in Tampa, Fla., Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain known for its bold, craveable food, famous fries, exceptional value, and people-first attitude, operates and franchises both Checkers® and Rally's® restaurants.

With over 700 restaurants and room to grow, Checkers & Rally's is a proven brand with flexible building formats that is aggressively expanding across the country. Checkers & Rally's is dedicated to being a place where franchisees and employees who work hard can create opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities. In recent years, the brand has earned several of the industry's most prestigious awards including Franchise Times Top 500, Entrepreneur Top 500, Franchise Business Review’s “Satisfaction Award,” “Top Food Franchise” in 2023, and “Most Profitable Franchise” in 2022.

The brand also earned recognition for its best-in-class training and education programs, winning four prestigious Brand Hall Group awards in 2024.

Checkers Drive-In restaurant franchises are small but efficient making our restaurants easy to operate and typically reduced overhead costs.