Social media helps drive customers to Red Chickz, where they find breakfast-themed chicken dishes and fried chicken sandwiches.
Before Shawn Lalehzarian could bring Nashville hot chicken to Los Angeles, he needed to find an authentic recipe—one he could taste for himself. As he told the origin story, he spent two weeks in Nashville and asked everyone, including his Uber drivers, if they had a homemade hot chicken recipe they’d share for his restaurant. Lalehzarian eventually found someone who had a sister willing to teach her methods.
“They invited us into their home and basically showed us the homemade recipe from scratch,” Lalehzarian said. It was from that recipe that The Red Chickz created its signature sauce and seasoning, which it debuted along with a specially developed crispy breading in 2018 at the first restaurant in downtown L.A.
Since launching its franchise program in 2021, The Red Chickz signed agreements for 18 locations, including three in San Diego with franchisee Mattie Shlemon. After searching for a brand he connected with, Shlemon said at Red Chickz, he feels like family and the team impressed him right off the bat. And of course, there’s the food.
“I’m not into fried food, but this was just absolutely phenomenal,” Shlemon said. “The crispness, the batter—they’re second to none. This is the heart and soul of the operation.”
He recalled a time when he put his Red Chickz chicken in the refrigerator and came back to it later and ate it cold because it was still crispy. “You can’t create that overnight,” Shlemon said.
Signature menu items include a chicken sandwich—with the classic toppings of pickles, sauce and slaw, or with chipotle sauce and cheese—as well as a French toast chicken sandwich, chicken tacos and tenders.
When Red Chickz opened its doors four years ago, Nashville-style hot chicken was not as popular as it is now. Today, Lalehzarian said, there’s 30 to 40 Nashville hot chicken joints in the area. But instead of being concerned about the competition, he views the proliferation of concepts as a demonstration of the category’s strength—it’s a permanent fixture in the U.S. restaurant industry, rather than a fleeting trend.
“It has become a segment in the restaurant industry now, as we see major brands trying to add the flavor to their menu,” he said. “I feel like what we’ll see in the near future would be a lot of infusion and bringing this flavor and the touch of Nashville hot into other concepts as well.”
Shlemon agreed. “It’s just a fabulous, fabulous concept that I see booming,” he said.
Lalehzarian moved to the United States from Iran in 1998. He didn’t speak English at the time and started working his way up in the restaurant industry, learning a new language along the way. He later spent nearly seven years in a senior operations role at international food and beverage company HMSHost, working with brands such as Wolfgang Puck, Starbucks, California Pizza Kitchen and Chili’s.
Shawn Lalehzarian
Red Chickz, which is adding a corporate store in Culver City this summer, rose to fame online with its 1.1 million TikTok followers who watch the brand’s drool-worthy videos of sandwiches being made and covered in sauce. The brand’s hundreds of food porn videos have garnered nearly 30 million likes on the popular video-sharing app.
The TikTok success has significantly helped sales in downtown L.A., Lalehzarian said, with about half of his customers saying they found out about the restaurant through social media. More dedicated chicken sandwich lovers have traveled hours from out of town to try Red Chickz.
“They just come down because they’ve been following us on TikTok … and they literally drove down to have our food and go back,” Lalehzarian said.
The locals, though, are the ones who become repeat customers. “They’re like, ‘Oh, we just came across your TikTok and just wanted to pop in and see what you’ve got,’” he said. “And then that’s the start of becoming a loyal repeat customer.”
Red Chickz reported 2021 gross sales of $1.22 million at its corporate restaurant in L.A., up from $1.05 million in 2020. The total investment to open a Red Chickz franchise ranges from $398,500 to $856,400, including the $40,000 franchise fee.