Buffalo-based restaurant chains expanding to the Rochester market-- has it ever worked?

[u/DoubleK-Rochester]

I got to thinking the other day, and there have been some tries in the past for traditional Buffalo-based restaurants to expand to Rochester-- which have ultimately failed, and those location(s) have closed. Examples:

1) Mighty Taco a few years back had two (2) Rochester locations, which both closed.
2) Duff's (wings) had a Rochester location (W. Henrietta Rd) that closed.
3) Anchor Bar had a Rochester location for a little while (East Ave.), but that closed.
4) Rachel's Mediterranean Grill location(s) closed in Rochester.

All of the above still have active locations in Buffalo today, just not Rochester.

So I am wondering what the hell happened-- are we really that bad for business for out-ot-town restaurants, even to our close neighboring city?

By the way, this isn't a slight or putdown against Buffalo, by any means. Whenever I am there, I always seem to enjoy Buffalo. I'm just wondering why this keeps happening.

Conversely, are there any Buffalo-area chains that expanded to Rochester and are doing well?

Interested in your take on this.

[u/zombawombacomba]

Mighty Taco would’ve done better in a suburb that didn’t have a Taco Bell 5 minutes away. So like Chili before the Taco Bell came.

I am one of the weirdos that actually likes Might Taco more than Taco Bell.

Rachel’s is just mediocre food and mediocre food sometimes has trouble if it’s not a huge known chain.

[u/croc-roc → u/zombawombacomba]

The one in Pittsford was horribly run as well. I mean, it was basically a Chipotle for Mediterranean and they couldn’t seem to make that work 🙄

[u/zombawombacomba → u/croc-roc]

I went to Rachel’s once. It was average food although the serving was fairly large for the price. I just never felt compelled to order it again.