The chickening of Central Florida continues.
Chicken Guy!, the exclamatively pointed concept from Robert Earl and celebrity chef and television personality Guy Fieri, will open its third Florida location in Winter Park this summer in a former Steak ’n Shake.
The new CG! will be the first to have a drive-through option. The flagship Chicken Guy! opened in Disney Springs in the summer of 2018. There is another restaurant in Aventura Mall in Miami. It also has a presence in the FedEx Field in Maryland and Levi’s® Stadium in Santa Clara but those are only open on game days.
The Winter Park restaurant will have indoor seating for 80 and outdoor seating for 12 but will feature sliding glass windows that will allow the restaurant to offer an open-air feel. The parking lot will feature dedicated spaces to third-party delivery services and customers picking up takeout orders.
Chicken Guy! is a fast-service concept that offers grilled or crispy fried chicken tenders, on skewers or in a sandwich, with an array of 22 sauces to accompany. When the first restaurant opened in Disney Springs, Earl said that the product was similar to Chick-fil-A but you can get it on Sundays.
The new Chicken Guy!, which plans to open at 818 S. Orlando Ave. in late summer, will be corporate owned, but one wonders if franchising is far off. In a statement, Earl noted, “…we are well on our way to becoming a household name nationwide.”
Fieri, too, noted in 2018 that the name is a nod to the old radio series “Chicken Man,” which could be a clue to its intended growth. As anyone who remembers that show will recall, the tagline of the opening was, “He’s everywhere, he’s everywhere.” There was probably even an exclamation point.
Here’s a video of Fieri discussing the restaurant’s name, and here’s one of Earl explaining the concept.
