Chattanooga-based restaurant chain Champy's Famous Fried Chicken is doubling down in its hometown.
The eatery is planning on opening a second Chattanooga location on Lee Highway near Shallowford Road by August, said Sam Goonan, manager of the original Champy's on M.L. King Boulevard.
Champy's Fried Chicken on M.L. King Boulevard.
Patrons visit Champy's for lunch."Things are great," she said. "We want to expand to better serve everyone."
Goonan said operations at the M.L. King restaurant, which opened in 2009, will stay the same.
The second Chattanooga location will go into an existing building in a Lee Highway shopping center and be adjacent to Food City. Construction equipment already is on the site.
Young Kim, co-manager of the nearby Kacey Home Cooking restaurant, said she doesn't necessarily see Champy's as direct competition with her eatery which has been there for about 11 years.
"We're home cooking," she said, adding that the future Champy's location is smaller than Kacey. "Hopefully, there are different meals."
Champy's was originally started by Seth Champion on his personal savings and with a small nine-person staff.
Champy's website says the chain has five current locations, with eateries in Alabaster, Ala., Daphne, Ala., Muscle Shoals, Ala., and Athens, Ga., in addition to Chattanooga.
Champy's said it makes its fried chicken from an old family recipe from the Mississippi Delta region. Champion's family cooked it for years in Indianola, Miss., which is the hometown of Blues legend B.B. King.
Champion said that when he moved to Chattanooga, he missed his former home, including the food and the culture, according to news archives. He said he created the restaurant so he could have something similar to "back home."
The chain is among new businesses which are helping to breathe new life into that end of M.L. King. Potentially the biggest change agent is Douglas Heights, a 275,000-square-foot apartment complex that will occupy nearly an entire city block between Douglas and University streets with an estimated $40 million price tag. With 691 beds, the complex is to open this fall.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.