Worthington restaurant bulldozed for Sheetz gas station

WORTHINGTON, Ohio ( WCMH ) — The site of Woody’s Wing House, a bulldozed central Ohio restaurant that replaced Champps, is now home to a convenience store and gas station after the property was bought for more than $3 million by Sheetz.

The newly constructed Sheetz location opened on Tuesday at 161 E. Campus View Boulevard in Worthington, a two-acre site the gas station purchased for $3,750,000 last August before Woody’s permanently shuttered in October. The restaurant building converted from a Champps before it began operating as a wing house in late 2017.

“After much deliberation, our ownership group has made the very difficult decision to close the doors of our flagship Worthington location,” Woody’s said on social media at the time of the closing. “We hope to see Woody’s reborn in a new location in the future, so for now, it’s not goodbye — just see you later.”

Founded by the owner of J. Liu Restaurant and Bar in Dublin and Worthington, Woody’s had expanded to two locations after opening at 1840 Hilliard-Rome Road in 2020, which has also since closed. Now, Sheetz is adding to its dozens of locations planned for Ohio, with more than 720 locations across Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

The Pennsylvania-based gas station chain announced its expansion into central Ohio in 2019, with the first location open at 710 Sunbury Road in Delaware in April 2021 and thirteen additional locations open in the following months. Sheetz said they plan to open a dozen new stores annually in the Columbus area through 2025.

Woody’s marked one of several Columbus-area restaurants demolished for new quick-service development, like Mackenzie River at 1515 Polaris Parkway which closed earlier this year after eight years in business. The restaurant launched in 2016 after Montana-based Glacier Restaurant Group purchased all Max and Erma’s locations and transformed several into Mackenzie River eateries.

Buca di Beppo at 60 E. Wilson Bridge Road in Worthington was purchased by Chick-fil-A last month, Franklin County auditor’s office records show. Plans call for the Buca di Beppo to be bulldozed later in 2026 to clear the site for construction of a 5,000 square-foot Chick-fil-A restaurant with a 2027 opening, a proposal approved by the city of Worthington states.

Tee Jaye’s Country Place at 4910 N. High St. closed in 2021 to make way for a Chick-fil-A, which opened earlier this month . Construction at this site included preserving the site’s 20th-century sign that has received a facelift with Chick-fil-A branding.

Other central Ohio restaurants facing a bulldozer for new development include a former Max and Erma’s restaurant at 7480 Sawmill Road in Dublin making room for a Sheetz location. Max and Erma’s Montana-based owner, Glacier Restaurant Group, closed the Sawmill Road location and the brand’s other Dublin restaurant at 411 Metro Place North in 2020.

A former O’Charley’s near Polaris will undergo a $1.5 million renovation to become the first Ohio restaurant for Fogo de Chão, a Brazilian steakhouse with locations across the globe. The location will add to the steakhouse’s collection of nearly 100 restaurants in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the Middle East, the U.S. and more.

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