A Fresno shopping center will soon have 3 chicken restaurants. Here’s the newest one
The newest Angry Chickz restaurant is opening in northwest Fresno – and it’s not the only chicken place around.
The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. Friday in the Marketplace at El Paseo, the big new shopping center near Highway 99 and Herndon Avenue. It serves quick-service Nashville hot chicken, some of it so spicy you need to sign a waiver to eat it.
Expect people to line up, maybe at around 7 a.m., for a shot at the free T-shirts, hoodies and other goodies the restaurant plans to give away.
Angry Chickz took over the space that Chronic Tacos left behind when it closed recently, near Olive Garden.
It’s the third Angry Chickz in Fresno (and the owner wants to open two more in Clovis, but locations haven’t been finalized yet).
But there’s something else that’s noteworthy about this opening. It will be one of three chicken restaurants in that shopping center.
Three chicken restaurants
In mid-December, The Chicken Shack opened in the same outbuilding as Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt. You can see Angry Chickz from Chicken Shack’s window, but barely.
The restaurants are two-tenths of a mile apart, or a 3-minute walk, according to Googlemaps.
And soon, Fire Wings will open in another building that’s about three-tenths of a mile away and a 6-minute walk from Chicken Shack (if this is starting to seem like a big shopping center, that’s because it is).
Fire Wings has appeared close to opening for a while, but did not share an opening date when contacted by The Bee earlier this month.
Why are so many restaurants opening with chicken on the menu?
The biggest reason is that chicken is huge right now. The fast food chicken sandwich wars have been happening for years. Panera Bread, which has a restaurant in the shopping center, just announced it’s rolling out two new chicken sandwiches, including a spicy one.
And regular readers of The Bee will remember our story from last fall, when the trend really got going in Fresno with the opening of eight new chicken restaurants and food trucks.
To prevent competition from hurting a business, sometimes restaurants have language in their leases prohibiting a competitor from opening within the same center.
It’s not clear if that was the case here as several people involved declined to speak for this story. But since the land Angry Chickz sits on, along with other businesses in that row like Olive Garden, are on a different parcel with different owners and landlords, it may have allowed the duplications to happen.
Angry Chickz CEO David Mkhitaryan said he doesn’t consider the other restaurants competitors.
“We both serve chicken but it’s different concepts,” he said. “If somebody wants Angry Chickz, they want Angry Chickz. If somebody wants Chicken Shack, they want Chicken Shack.”
Food on the menu
Indeed, their menus are somewhat different. Angry Chickz, a California chain with 17 locations, has a limited menu specializing in Nashville hot chicken. You can get their spiced chicken tenders as combo meals in sliders, on white bread, or over buttery rice, often with pickles, cole slaw and french fries.
Customers pick from six levels of spice, ranging from no heat to angry (where you really do have to sign a waiver).
This Chicken Shack location (the company was founded in Hanford but the El Paseo restaurant is owned by a Fresno franchisee) features chicken fingers, wings and boneless wings on its menu. They’re served in combos with a choice of 32 sauces.
Salads, burgers made with Harris Ranch beef, sandwiches, and a chicken-and-waffle breakfast sandwich are available, along with a growing dessert menu that includes funnel cake fries.
Fire Wings serves beer with its chicken. Menu options include sandwiches, chicken strips and tenders (including the meatless Beyond meat tenders) with lots of sides and family packs available.
Details: Angry Chickz is at 6717 Riverside Drive, suite 101. Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. It will soon be on delivery apps, but does not take phone orders.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 8:18 AM.
