Noble Chicken. Rooster and Rice. Urban Bird. Ponko Chicken.
These are just a few of the emerging brands in the increasingly crowded fast-casual chicken space. And it’s not just about chicken sandwiches.
Welcome to the inaugural column about emerging brands—or what we call Buzzworthy Brands—young, growing chain concepts, about which there is no shortage of news.
This column will not be exclusively about chicken concepts, of course. But it is clear the entrepreneurs who are looking to grow the Next Hot Brand are tapping into a collective consumer craving for chicken, particularly boneless fried tenders (but not always).
And it’s not just the fast-casual segment.
For years, quick-service operators have been looking for ways to take share in both chicken and beverages, a move brought into focus last week by McDonald’s creation of specialist Restaurant Experience Teams to focus on burgers, chicken, and beverages/desserts.
And then there are the high-flying chicken brands inspiring the younger upstarts. Chick-fil-A is No. 3 on the 2024 Technomic Top 500 restaurant chain ranking. Raising Cane’s is gunning to reach the Top 10 on that list, ending 2024 with 878 units and topping $5 billion in sales. Wingstop had a record year in 2024 with domestic same-store sales up 20%, mostly driven by traffic. Dave’s Hot Chicken is spreading its Reaper spice coast to coast and is rumored to be in the process of being acquired by Roark Capital.
These are chains that are also growing rapidly, with plenty of capital for expansion (or franchisees keen to add units). But that doesn’t stop newer players from planting their flags, perhaps even borrowing an idea or two, and carving out an audience with something a little different.
Here are just a few.
The flagship Noble Chicken in Cincinnati opened earlier this month. | Photo courtesy of Noble Chicken.
Noble Chicken is a fast-casual concept launched by the folks behind Wings and Rings. The flagship unit opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, earlier this month, and the company is hoping to franchise the brand, looking at the Midwest, South and Southwest.
Wings and Rings, previously known as Buffalo Wings and Rings, is a sports bar concept with about 60 units. Chicken wings and other chicken offerings have long been on the menu there. (Fast-casual spinoffs by full-service chains more generally, it should be noted, have not had great results.)
Noble Chicken was born in part after the wings were entered in a competition in Cincinnati. The company tested the spinoff first in a ghost kitchen, and later in a food court before moving forward with the standalone brick and mortar.
Rooster and Rice has a Thai spin to the menu. | Photo courtesy of Rooster and Rice.
Rooster and Rice, meanwhile, was founded in 2015 in the San Francisco Bay Area by Bryan Lew and Tommy Charoen, who in 2019 partnered with Aroi Hospitality Group (which includes former founders of the food delivery app Caviar).
Here, the menu is all about khao mun gai, or Thai-style chicken and rice, which is not fried, though some units include panko-crusted chicken thigh cutlets and larb popcorn chicken, as well as fried chicken skins as a side.
The franchise brand boasts 10 units on its website, and this week franchisee Gore Song, who operates a unit in Irvine, California, opened a second location in nearby Costa Mesa.
The concept’s mission is to bring a nutrient-dense, high-protein and low-sodium menu to the masses.
“We saw firsthand in Irvine how deeply people connected with our food—not just because it’s delicious, but because it’s wholesome, simple and consistently satisfying,” Song said in a statement.
Houston-based Urban Bird is preparing to franchise. | Photo courtesy of Urban Bird.
In Texas, meanwhile, former Wingstop franchisee Brandon Gawthorp is growing the hot-chicken concept Urban Bird Hot Chicken, which has 16 company-owned units across the state and expects to reach 29 by the end of the year.
It’s a concept Gawthorp plans to start franchising, later this year or next year.
He developed Urban Bird after falling in love with spicy hot chicken on a trip to Las Vegas. At the time, there’s wasn’t much in the way of hot chicken in his hometown of Houston, so he created Urban Bird, offering tenders and “sandos” with various spice levels, but also chicken and waffles, both crinkle-cut and sweet potato fries, and sides like Hot Cheeto-topped mac and cheese, and a cup of seasoned street corn in the style of elote.
And, though Urban Bird offers spice levels ranging from “country” (no heat) to “fire in the hole” (which promises to “burn you twice”), Gawthorp has also added chicken flavors that include simple lemon-pepper or barbecue.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t want the heat,” he said. “I was amazed at the number of people who would come and just get regular chicken.”
Former Zaxby's franchisees are planning to open the first drive-thru unit of Ponko Chicken in Georgia. | Photo courtesy of Ponko Chicken
And then, out of Atlanta, there is Ponko Chicken.
Another franchise brand, this concept focuses on panko-crust chicken tenders, in the Japanese style, fried in rice bran oil, which owner Patrick Sallarulo contends is more healthful, with cholesterol-lowering properties. But the menu also includes non-fried teriyaki and grilled chicken options, as plates, tacos, sandwiches or salad meals. Fries are dusted with furikake seasoning.
Ponko was founded by sisters Maggie Antoine and Reiko Clark with an East-meets-West fusion menu, but their early units went under in 2008. The concept was acquired by Sallarulo, who said he was their chiropractor at the time. He had fallen in love with the food and, after opening a flagship unit in 2017, decided to franchise the brand.
Now with seven units, Ponko is expecting to see its first drive-thru location, coming to Newnan, Georgia, and opened by franchisees Bill and William Young, former Zaxby’s operators, who are planning two more in what is the brand’s first multi-unit agreement.
Sallarulo tweaked the brand a bit. Early units had a bar, for example (and some still do), but he moved the brand more into fast-casual territory, adding a bakery so the menu now includes cakes and cookies to add incremental sales.
Units average between $1.7 million and $1.8 million, he said. Franchising was paused for a bit during the inflationary post-COVID-19 years, but now he’s hoping to see the chain grow, especially with drive-thrus and smaller formats.
“I put it off because of inflation and I wanted to build a strong foundation,” said Sallarulo. “I’m 68, and people ask me why I do this. I do it because I’m not dead.”
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