Growing slow and steady, Dallas-based Super Chix, the chicken-loving restaurant chain, is opening two new locations around DFW while expanding its menu beyond its initial focus on chicken.
The two new branches are located in Frisco and Fort Worth, and will open in 2017. The Frisco branch will be at Preston, just north of Hwy. 121, in the same bustling center as Chipotle, Mash'd, and a host of restaurants. That was part of its appeal, says Super Chix founder Nick Ouimet.
"We chose the location because there's a lot going on there," Ouimet says. "If you look at what's around, there's the Target, a Best Buy, all these places we know are doing well. So many people go there for lunch."
In Fort Worth, it'll open in the new Near Southside Mercantile development, north of Magnolia, near the Medical District.
Ouimet helped conceive Super Chix in 2014 under the auspices of his former employer Yum Brands, as a kind of challenge to Chick-fil-A, with a fairly simple menu of chicken tenders, a chicken sandwich, French fries, and frozen custard. Ouimet acquired the concept in 2014. A location in Arlington has since closed, but there are currently three other branches, in Dallas, Richardson, and Frisco, off the Dallas North Tollway south of El Dorado Parkway.
As the chain grows, it is also evolving. There is a new breakfast menu, with non-chicken items such as the egg sandwich with chorizo and Gouda cheese. There's an entire selection of sandwiches.
"We changed the menu drastically about two months ago," Ouimet says. "We added a whole bunch of sandwiches, including the bacon-jam grilled chicken, and a Cajun chicken sandwich with fried pickles."
The biggest new hit on the menu has no chicken at all.
"The smash success, and one of our best things, is the vegetarian crispy avocado sandwich," Ouimet says. "It's an avocado that's halved and pitted, stuffed with Gouda, breaded, and dipped in a special seasoning."
There's also a spin off the frozen custard option, with a line of concretes to which M&Ms, peanut-butter cups, and other treats are added. There's also craft beer and wine by the glass.
Rolling with the changes as they expand makes Super Chix feel less like a chain and more like a lab. "We opened the location in Frisco with the new menu, and it's been fun to see the mix of different people who are going for more sandwiches than tenders, ordering in a totally different way from when we started," Ouimet says.
