Founder Seth Champion is photographed at the new Lee Highway location of Champy's Fried Chicken which is under construction Tuesday, June 28, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.Champy's locations
* Alabaster, Alabama* Athens, Georgia* Daphne, Alabama* Lee Highway, Chattanooga* M.L. King Boulevard, Chattanooga* Murfreesboro, Tennessee (new)* Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Champy's server Mandy Veasey takes the order of Nashville residents Kendall Daniel, left, and Jeremy Quarles as they visit the MLKing Boulevard restaurant on June 8, 2015.A decade after taking a job as a server at Champy's in Chattanooga, Samantha Goonon has risen through the ranks and saved enough money to build her own licensed Champy's restaurant.
The new restaurant, located off of Northwest Broad Street in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, will be the seventh for the growing franchise, which was founded by Seth Champion in Chattanooga with about $7,000 in cash and a loan from his father-in-law.
Today, the chain of restaurants has six stores and will grow to 250 employees once the 6,900-square-foot Murfreesboro location opens by the end of summer.
Goonon began working for Champy's - her first and only restaurant employer - as a 22-year-old server while she was pursuing an elementary education degree at UTC, then she was promoted to general manager and then district manager over the following years, eventually managing both the chain's Lee Highway and M.L. King Boulevard locations at once.
She'll be going into business in Murfreesboro with her brother, T.J. Goonon, at a location that will allow her to expand the brand westward.
"We want everyone to come in and feel welcome, we want everyone to know that we see them as soon as they walk in the door," She said. "It's just a very fun, casual atmosphere."
Champion, who says he has carefully managed the restaurant's growth to avoid the quality problems that come with growing too fast, is shooting to have 10 locations - up from seven currently - by the time he turns 40. He's 37 now, so that's one per year for the next three years.
"We like controlled, quality growth at Champy's where all restaurants are healthy; that's the key to ensuring the base layer of something much bigger," Champion said.
Champion likes to promote from within, cultivating talent inside his organization over time before sending them off to build their own Champy's while retaining the formula of fresh-cooked chicken and friendly service.
"A lot of it is a gut feeling, and just watching them in the restaurant over the years," he says. "With them having gone through all that, you can pick up really quick on the superstars throughout the bunch."
While it's unknown how much the Murfreesboro location will cost to build until it's done, Champion says the typical cost for a new Champy's restaurant is between $500,000 and $750,000. The new location will employ about 50 people, Goonan said.
Contact staff writer Ellis Smith at esmith@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6315.