Ranger Burger announces it will close next month, citing COVID-19 financial issues
Ranger Burger, the latest iteration of a famed restaurant best known for serving massive hamburgers to Fort Benning’s Army privates and decorated generals for decades, will close after Oct. 4, the restaurant announced in a Facebook post Tuesday.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that I announce the permanent” closure of Ranger Burger. “These decisions were not made lightly. They came after painful deliberations amid (the pandemic) that has devastated the global economy and caused irreparable damage to our business and profession. Given the challenges of the last five months, we could not find an economically viable path to continue operating,” a portion of the post reads.
The restaurant opened in January 2020. Joey Hancock and Ryan Sikes, both United States Army veterans, headed the business. The two men were stationed together at Fort Benning from 2010-12, and both men retired from the military in 2017. During their time at Benning, they developed an affinity for the old Four Winds restaurant and its burgers.
“I ate out there a lot when I was stationed at Benning,” Hancock said in an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer in December 2019. “It was pretty quick for me to get out of the gate and get down there to Cusseta and grab some burgers.”
Susan and Donald Cox launched Four Winds in 1979, moving to the Hwy. 26 location in Cusseta in 1992. It had become a tradition of sorts for Army Rangers to consume a Ranger burger as part of their transition into the Special Operations ranks. Several attempts to operate restaurants at the Hwy. 26 location have failed in recent years.
“I am incredibly grateful to my employees for their utmost dedication, talent and professionalism and to our guests for their unwavering support. With that being said October the 4th will be our last day open, so come out and grab a Ranger Burger while we are still open,” the restaurant’s post reads.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 10:22 AM.