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Nashville Chicken Craze Continues in Fresno With The Red Chickz Opening
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By David Taub, Senior Reporter
Published 10 months ago on
August 9, 2024
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Shawn Lalehzarian immigrated to American from Iran, not even speaking English. Now, he is opening up his fifth The Red Chickz restaurant, this one in Fresno. (GV Wire/David Taub)

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Is this Fresno or Nashville?

Over the last few years, several Nashville-style hot chicken restaurants have opened in town — Angry Chickz, Fluckers Hot Chicken, Al’s Hot Chicken, and Houston TX Hot Chicken (ignore the misnomer). This is on top of several food trucks with the spicy chicken theme.

Now, The Red Chickz is the latest entry, opening at Manchester Center (3520 N. Blackstone Ave., suite 106, Fresno) officially on Saturday. The first 200 customers get a free honey butter chicken sandwich with purchase.

Nashville hot chicken has an interesting back story and continues to be the “it” thing in the food industry.

The National Restaurant Association highlighted Nashville hot chicken as a trend in its “What’s Hot 2024 Culinary Forecast.”

Locations of some of Fresno’s Nashville hot chicken restaurants. (GV Wire/David Rodriguez and David Taub)

Brining The Red Chickz to Fresno

Fresno is the fifth location for The Red Chickz, which is based in southern California. When owner Shawn Lalehlzarian jumped into the business, he had to decide between burgers or chicken. He flew out to Nashville first.

“We asked everyone from the Uber driver to the bellman at the hotel, if they had anyone in their family who knows how to make Nashville hot chicken. And, so a couple of these folks, they invited us to their homes,” Lalehzarian said.

Nashville hot chicken easily won out. He was only the fifth Nashville hot style to open in Los Angeles, just 10 years ago. Now there are more than 80.

Lalehzarian is partnering with franchisee Paul Riar. So, why Fresno?

“Fresno is a very great community as far as being a food hub, and there are new concepts coming in,” Lalehzarian said.

Lalehzarian said the market is not oversaturated yet — locally or nationwide.

Like most Nashville hot chicken restaurants, The Red Chickz offers its level of spices — from “country style” plain to “inferno” xx-hot.

The “inferno” style mixes Carolina Reaper peppers to the Cayenne base. It can instantly cause sweats, tears, and burning sensations. It may be best to have it with a milkshake.

Lalehzarian said there is more than the spice that makes his chicken special.

“Crunch is what defines the fried chicken,” he said.

The two-piece chicken tenders at The Red Chickz is served for $12 with a variety of spices. (GV Wire/David Taub)

Started in America with No English

“I’m definitely living the American dream.”Shawn Lalehzarian

Lalehzarian moved to America — San Diego — in 1998 with his family. At the age of 15, he spoke no English, and didn’t have any concept of American culture.

“So the easiest job to get was a dishwasher at the local restaurant. And that’s where I started,” Lalehzarian said.

The restaurant business is all Lalehzarian has known. He worked his way up as a cook and manager as his English improved. He then worked with HMSHost for 10 years, helping operate airport-based restaurants. He thought he might open a restaurant after he retired, but an opportunity came about in downtown Los Angeles.

“I guess the universe had a different plan for me,” Lalehzarian said. “I’m definitely living the American dream.”

Fluckers Under New Management

The Hayer family came to Fresno just five months ago, from the U.K.

Already knowledgeable about Fresno when visiting family in the area, the Hayers knew they wanted to get into a new business. Fluckers was that opportunity.

Fluckers opened in 2022 in north Fresno at 8963 N. Cedar Avenue, #101. The Hayers bought it from Jack and Marina Garayan for $1250,000 in April.

It remains the only locally-owned Nashville hot chicken restaurant that Appetite for Fresno surveyed.

“We just fell in love with (Fresno). Like, the vibe is so chill. Everyone’s so sweet. And then we came across Fluckers, we couldn’t say no,” said Chanan Hayer. Her father, Jaswinder Hayer, previously operated restaurants when he lived in Germany. He is originally from India.

Fluckers Hot Chicken does have a unique vibe. Its walls feature murals of chickens in familiar scenes from movies like “Step Brothers,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” and “Meet the Fockers.”

Fluckers heat levels go from lemon pepper to “You’re Flucked.”

“The hotter the better for me personally,” Chanan said. Flucking medium is the most popular.

Above: Daughter and father Chanan (left) and Jaswinder Hayer are the new owners of Fluckers Hot Chicken. Below: Some of the Fluckers decor. (GV Wire/David Taub)

Nashville Origin — A Jilted Paramour

Timothy Davis literally wrote the book — “The Hot Chicken Cookbook: The Fiery History & Red-Hot Recipes of Nashville’s Beloved Bird — on the subject. 

Nashville hot chicken is really just a rub of a Cayenne pepper paste, Davis said.

The style started in the 1930s with Prince’s Hot Chicken, created by Thornton Prince.

“It wasn’t he that came up with it, it was one of his paramours who was trying to punish him for staying out late, gallivanting around town. To punish him, she just douses chicken with all kinds of hot spice and stuff. And as the story goes, the punishment wasn’t seen as a punishment. And he liked it a lot and kind of played around with it, and then eventually started selling it,” Davis said.

Fast-forwarding 90 years, Davis has a thought on how Nashville hot chicken became a craze (he actually wrote 10 of them on Medium).

“I think it is a food that is made kind of for social media,” Davis, also a Cumberland University instructor said. “It’s something that you can catch on a TikTok video of you eating it and, you know, tears flowing down your face.”

Davis said musicians coming to Nashville also helped spread the word.

More Popular Than Hamburgers?

Chicken is becoming the hot trend, more so than hamburgers. Price is one reason, experts say.

“Americans have become very enthralled with chicken. If you look at the overall usage of a lot of different proteins, chicken is very versatile and pretty reasonably priced. You can do a lot with chicken,” said Chad Moutray, vice president of research at the National Restaurant Association.

Moutray agrees that hot and spicy chicken is “in” food item. It is a way restaurants can differentiate themselves.

“It really attracts younger crowd. In fact, (restaurants) are going out of their way to try to reach out to social media influencers to try to advertise pretty heavily on social media,” Moutray said. “There is this temperature gauge to it that kind of makes it cool.”

Chanan Hayer from Fluckers agrees.

“Obviously, you know, it’s actually people from my generation. We do love to follow trends,” she said.

Fluckers does sell a smashburger, its the chicken customer go for, she said.

The #1 Slider Combo 1 at Fluckers Hot Chicken comes with fries and a drink for $12.99. (GV Wire/David Taub)

Eaters like to go out for food they can’t easily replicate at home, such as Nashville hot chicken, Moutray said.

“People are just sort of tired of the last 40 years of eating burgers that keep getting smaller and smaller and smaller and more and more tasteless,” Davis said.

Lalehzarian of The Red Chickz disagrees.

“I think hamburger would always be the number one staple,” Lalehzarian said. “Fried chicken or chicken in general can definitely be the second.”

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David Taub,
Senior Reporter
Curiosity drives David Taub. The award-winning journalist might be shy, but feels mighty with a recorder in his hand. He doesn't see it his job to "hold public officials accountable," but does see it to provide readers (and voters) the information needed to make intelligent choices. Taub has been honored with several writing awards from the California News Publishers Association. He's just happy to have his stories read. Joining GV Wire in 2016, Taub covers politics, government and elections, mainly in the Fresno/Clovis area. He also writes columns about local eateries (Appetite for Fresno), pro wrestling (Off the Bottom Rope), and media (Media Man). Prior to joining the online news source, Taub worked as a radio producer for KMJ and PowerTalk 96.7 in Fresno. He also worked as an assignment editor for KCOY-TV in Santa Maria, California, and KSEE-TV in Fresno. He has also worked behind the scenes for several sports broadcasts, including the NCAA basketball tournament, and the Super Bowl. When not spending time with his family, Taub loves to officially score Fresno Grizzlies games. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Taub is a die-hard Giants and 49ers fan. He graduated from the University of Michigan with dual degrees in communications and political science. Go Blue! You can contact David at 559-492-4037 or at Send an Email

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