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The RUB empire is set to expand in a big way, according to a source high in the company. The Chelsea barbecue restaurant, which expanded to Las Vegas last year, will add locations in Long Island; Los Angeles; San Diego, Scottsdale, Arizona; and two more in Las Vegas. Ownership is also negotiating for another New York Metro location. The expansion should be complete within the next eighteen months, according to our source. Owner Andrew Fischel is said to be concentrating with his characteristic manic intensity on the burger arts and plans to open RUB Burger outlets connected to some of the new barbecues.

That's all well and good, but what about the RUB chopper, that two-wheeled barbecue pit designed for Fischel by the American Chopper guys? Will there be another one of those? “We're having a new one built,” says Fischel, “and it will definitely come to New York. New York needs to see the RUB chopper for itself. It just does. You can't have something that cool just stuck in one place.”

Related: It's Not a Motorcycle, Baby. It's a Mobile Barbecue Pit.