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.”

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.

Started in America with No English

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.

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.

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.”