Laura and Todd Lyons started Love & Honey, a Southern-inspired fried chicken brand, in 2015.
At Love & Honey, it’s all in the details.
“For the first five years that we were open, we vented every single box that went out. We punched holes in every single box that went out so that the steam would leave the box and that the chicken wouldn’t get soggy,” co-founder Laura Lyons said. “We did that by hand with a hole punch, because we couldn’t find a box that met our needs.”
Thankfully, they’ve since found a packaging solution. Laura and her husband, Todd, launched the southern-inspired fried chicken restaurant in 2015. Each attended the Culinary Institute of America and used their classical chef training to create the menu. Love & Honey serves fried, bone-in chicken and tenders. Southern cooking has a lot of emphasis on the sides, and Love & Honey is no different. There’s cornbread, pimento cheese dip, potato salad, tator tots and more.
The Lyonses started the restaurant because they wanted to work together. Laura was laid off in 2015. “It was then that we decided, well, it’s now or never. Either I find a new job or we do this thing,” Laura said. “We decided that the time was right.”
Neither of them is from the South, but the pair hosted a Southern-themed dinner party with fried chicken as the star of the evening. Guests were so impressed by Todd’s fried chicken recipe that they suggested this be the restaurant concept they run with, Laura said.
The brand has signed its initial handful of franchisees, with the first being Nafee Hossain, who worked in the technology sector and considers himself a foodie. “I had the pleasure of being able to travel all over the country in the different states and cities. … Every place I go, I try to try something new,” he said. One of those “something new” places was Love & Honey. “It was a no-brainer for me, as far as trying to get involved in this.”
Hossain is opening one restaurant in University City, Pennsylvania.
Todd Lyons was apprehensive about adding chicken tenders to the menu, but now it’s one of Love & Honey’s best sellers.
Love & Honey did $1.48 million in sales last year out of its original—and so far only—location in Philadelphia. The store is open five days a week, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and only does to-go orders. Sales are steadily increasing, too, from $946,000 in 2020 and $1.22 million in 2021.
The initial investment required to open a Love & Honey franchise ranges from $518,900 to $748,700. The brand’s franchise fee is $40,000. Love & Honey is looking to expand further in the northeastern United States, focusing on malls or high-traffic downtown areas.
The chicken segment of the restaurant industry remains in growth mode, with menus ranging from chicken wings to fried chicken to Nashville hot-style chicken. Of all those options, Hossain said he’s tried “a lot of them.” He said it feels like other brands don’t take as much care and time to develop their recipes. “Whereas I think Love & Honey, it really does take a culinary approach to the product in itself, all the way from the pickle alignment to the type of coleslaw that you put on there, the different seasonings,” he said.
Everything at Love & Honey is made from scratch, from the sauces to the chicken batter. Despite Love & Honey being a more casual restaurant, the Lyonses’ fine dining background still comes into play.
“We always say that just because we’re not a fine-dining restaurant, and we just do fried chicken, doesn’t mean we can’t bring those values to the customer—to the way we work behind the scenes to the cleanliness of the kitchen, to just the systems and professionalism that we really bring you at the end of the product,” Todd said.
Laura’s and Todd’s favorite item is the chicken tenders, whereas Hossain’s favorite is the “Biscuit Jawn” sandwich, a buttermilk biscuit stacked with fried chicken and topped with pimento cheese spread and hot pepper jelly.
Todd was apprehensive about adding chicken tenders to their menu of bone-in offerings. Customers were asking for tenders, though. “We’ve always listened to our customers throughout the years,” he said. “As soon as we put the tenders on the menu, they instantly became the No. 1 seller by a lot, by like double. We sell over 700 pounds now a week.”