The New Market Entry
Chicken Salad Chick opens its first West Virginia restaurant on September 16, planting a flag in Barboursville's Tanyard Station shopping center and stretching the fast casual chain's footprint to 26 states. The brand, which bills itself as the only fast casual concept built around chicken salad, now operates more than 345 units systemwide — a scale that makes each new-state entry a signal of sustained franchise momentum rather than opportunistic spot growth.
Leading the Barboursville unit are Tammy and Rancie Hannah, first-time franchise owners who bring careers rooted in service rather than foodservice. Tammy spent more than 30 years in pharmaceutical sales at Pfizer; Rancie is a practicing physician specializing in hospice care in Russell, Kentucky. The couple's son, finishing a business degree at Eastern Kentucky University, is expected to join operations after graduation. Their profile — community-embedded professionals pivoting to franchise ownership — reflects a broader pattern in fast casual growth: brands like Chicken Salad Chick increasingly attract franchisees whose primary qualification is local trust, not restaurant experience.
Grand Opening Mechanics
The brand's grand opening playbook is engineered for foot traffic and app adoption simultaneously. On September 16, the first guest in line at 10 a.m. wins one free large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for a full year; the next 99 guests in line receive one per month for a year. Critically, participants must download the Chicken Salad Chick app, make a qualifying purchase, and enter a promo code to lock in the reward — a structure that converts opening-day curiosity into a measurable digital loyalty install base. Promotional giveaways continue through September 20, with daily incentives including branded totes, tumblers, and complimentary return-visit meals.
For operators studying competitive grand opening strategy, the multi-day cadence is worth noting: it spreads traffic load across an entire week rather than concentrating it on a single chaotic day, giving a new crew time to find its rhythm while keeping earned-media buzz alive.
Broader Expansion Picture
Chicken Salad Chick CEO and President Scott Deviney described the West Virginia opening as part of a larger development push, citing pending first-location openings in New York and Michigan as further evidence of the brand's geographic reach beyond its Southern stronghold. That expansion arc matters for the fast casual restaurant segment broadly: a concept with a tightly defined menu — scratch-made chicken salad in more than a dozen flavors, plus soups, sides, sandwiches, and desserts — is demonstrating that single-category specialization can scale nationally when the unit economics and franchisee support systems are sound.
The Barboursville restaurant also integrates the brand's community-giving framework from day one. Pre-opening Friends & Family events will benefit Ronald McDonald House, while the chain's CSC Foundation ties ongoing operations to CURE Childhood Cancer and local food bank support. That philanthropic infrastructure, increasingly standard among growing franchise brands, serves double duty: it builds local goodwill and gives franchisees a ready-made community engagement platform.
For trade observers tracking franchise development trends in hospitality, the Hannahs' deal also includes a commitment to expand in the broader tri-state area, signaling that the Barboursville opening is an entry point rather than an endpoint for this ownership group. The restaurant operates daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and offers dine-in, takeout, third-party delivery, and catering.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
