Champy's is planning to expand to Athens, Ga.
Samantha Goonan, a server at Champy's in Chattanooga, Tenn., takes the order from a table.Seth Champion, owner of Champy's Famous Fried Chicken, drove to Athens, Georgia, on Tuesday to personally see the "Coming Soon" signs go up on the newest Champy's location deep in the heart of SEC football country.
The Chattanooga-based restaurant started on Champion's personal savings and a small, nine-person staff in 2009 and has now grown into a five-restaurant brand.
Champy's operates three restaurants in Alabama, one in Chattanooga and now one in Georgia. The popular M. L. King Boulevard restaurant is where it all was born.
"I left the corporate world after about seven years, and decided to move over to Chattanooga and start a company," Champion said. "I took every last dime that I had, 401K and everything, credit cards, and leveraged everything I had on the line to put Champy's on MLK."
Champion believes the restaurant has enjoyed success because the food is cooked to order, from scratch, and when combined with the unique atmosphere and beer selection, creates an unbeatable formula.
Champion's recipes are based on the Mississippi Delta fare his family cooked for years back home in Indianola, Miss., which is also the hometown of Blues legend B.B. King.
"When I moved to Chattanooga, I really missed home, and that aspect of the food, and that culture and that soul of the place," he said. "And I just created Champy's so I would have something that would be similar to back home."
The M.L. King Boulevard restaurant alone now employs 45 people, while company-wide, Champy's has about 130 employees. Champion said the five restaurants are continually hiring to keep up with demand.
While looking for the next Champy's city, Champion visited towns, including Knoxville and Greenville, S.C., but "Athens is just a great fit," he said.
Athens is home of the University of Georgia, which has an undergraduate enrollment of 26,278, and a football stadium that seats 92,746 people -- and it's less than three miles up the road from the new Champy's.
Josh Collins, operator of the Athens Champy's, is a native of Monticello, Georgia, about an hour's drive from Athens, and he graduated from UGA in the mid-1990s. He later lived in Chattanooga for about a decade, in which time he befriended the Champions.
Now, he's excited about returning to Athens, which he has considered home since attending UGA, and taking a piece of Chattanooga with him.
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New Champy's in Athens, Ga.
"I had always planned to retire back to the Athens area and came across the opportunity to bring a good restaurant product here, and thought it would be a really big hit here," Collins said.
The 3,200-square-foot Athens Champy's is opening at 1120 Baxter Street, a main thoroughfare through town, at a spot immediately across from the public library. The restaurant will staff around 30 employees.
Collins said he hopes to draw UGA students, working professionals and families. And Champion said the restaurant is definitely still looking to expand into nearby cities, Knoxville included.
The Athens restaurant is expected to open around March 1.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.