Raleigh is getting its first Chicken Salad Chick, while a local butcher shop expands
A pair of foodie-centric spots will move into newly created space in the Lake Boone Shopping Center in Raleigh.
A new location of the wildly popular fast casual chain Chicken Salad Chick will open, along with a new gourmet shop from The Butcher’s Market.
Chicken Salad Chick in Raleigh
Fans of chicken salad are likely familiar with Chicken Salad Chick, a brand daring to put chicken salad in the spotlight it deserves.
The first Chicken Salad Chick opened in Cary’s Waverly Place shopping center in 2020.
Owned by franchisees John Schuster and Mike Saccone, Lake Boone will mark the second Triangle location for the brand, which now has over 200 restaurants across the country.
For those not yet swept up in the chicken salad phenomenon, the menu includes a dozen different varieties of chicken salad, from spicy, tangy buffalo, sweet and nutty styles with fruit and almonds or pecans, or classics made with just mayo and celery or an old fashioned mix of pickles and hard boiled eggs.
There’s also pimento cheese, salads and soups.
Schuster, a retired sales director for Coca-Cola, said nearly the entire Chicken Salad Chick menu is made in-house each day.
“It’s a special concept,” Schuster said. “It’s unlike most fast casual restaurants where you order and get a beeper. We bring the food to your table.”
Schuster and Saccone have a contract to open six locations in the Triangle, but the third location hasn’t been selected yet.
“(The Triangle) is such a great area, it’s just about finding locations that make the most sense,” Schuster said. “We hear all the time, ‘When are you coming to Holly Springs’ and so forth.”
Chicken Salad Chick was founded in Alabama by Stacy Brown in 2008 and in 2019 private equity firm Brentwood Associates bought a controlling stake in the brand, adding it to a restaurant portfolio that includes Blaze Pizza.
Schuster said the new Lake Boone location is in the final stages of permitting and expects an opening as early as mid to late October..
A new Butcher’s Market location
The local foodie specialty store The Butcher’s Market will open its seventh location in the Lake Boone Trail Shopping Center.
Started in 2010, The Butcher’s Market is the brainchild of father and son Craig and Derek Wilkins and has grown to five Wake County shops and another in Wilmington.
The Butcher’s Market is first and foremost a butcher shop, dealing in high grade beef, including Wagyu, chicken, pork and fish. There’s also a deep menu of prepared foods, including varieties of house cured and smoked bacon, marinated chicken and beef tips.
Derek Wilkins said The Butcher’s Market is a second career path for he and his father. Now the brand aims to be a destination for gourmands and home cooks tapped into the food scene.
“It’s a bit of a lifestyle choice to go in and shop for premium products,” Wilkins said. “We try to follow a lot of the trends in restaurants and bring them into the shop.”
The Butcher’s Market will move into a newly constructed building in Lake Boone Shopping Center. Wilkins expects the new shop to open by the end of 2023 or early next year.
