A Toronto Twist On Nashville Hot Chicken

Rogers Business

How Toronto’s Chica’s Chicken Serves Up Southern Hospitality

Chica's Chicken

Carolyn and her husband, Matthew, were big fans of Nashville hot chicken and felt that the market was untapped in Toronto. After a few trips to Tennessee, they started thinking about bringing the spicy flavour and southern charm of hot chicken to their own city. While working full-time, they created their own unique spices and recipes before renovating their first location in The Junction, Toronto’s west end neighbourhood, later quitting their jobs and diving into their business headfirst. Since then, Chica’s Chicken has grown in popularity and profile, even earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand award in 2022. We chatted with Carolyn about what sets the couple’s business apart, as well as where their unique blend of tasty food and great customer service will take them next.

Rogers Business: Tell us a little bit about your business.

Carolyn: We’re a quick service restaurant and we specialize in Nashville hot chicken. We have a very small and simple menu, which consists of fried chicken and sides; we have different variations of fried chicken, including sandwiches, bone-in chicken pieces, boneless chicken pieces and wings, but we’re mainly known for our fried chicken sandwiches. We opened up almost five years ago in Toronto and it’s owned by Matt and I. He’s the creator of all of the menu items; everything is made in-house each morning, from the spice mixes to the sauces and sides. We’re very involved with the restaurant. He’s the one doing all of the prep and the cooking, and we’re both working in the restaurant during service hours as well, just so we can interact with the customers. We have a very small staff of five employees and most of our staff have been with us for a very long time. We also have very good relationships with our customers, because a lot of them have known us from the very beginning. It’s a very tight community in The Junction, where we’re located.

Rogers Business: Who or what inspired the name of your business?

Carolyn: We named the restaurant after our dog, Chica. A lot of customers would come in and ask, “Who’s the Chica?” It’s actually our late dog. She was a yellow lab that we adopted from Israel, so she was a rescue dog. She was our favourite pet, so we named it after her and it stuck. We thought it was a good name and it was something that was very near and dear to us.

Rogers Business: Where did the idea for your small business begin?

Carolyn: Matt has been to Nashville quite a few times. He’s always been interested in the culinary industry there, but specifically the fried chicken scene.

We noticed that it was lacking in Toronto at the time and we thought it was something that would do very well. In Nashville, these chicken spots are all family-owned shops that aren’t concentrating on decor; they’re just focusing on the food and keeping everything simple. We’re not the type of people who would ever be interested in opening a fine dining restaurant, so Chica’s is something that suits our personalities. After a few trips to Nashville, we started talking about opening a business and put our focus on it. Matt worked on doing all the spice mixtures himself for about two years – but Chica’s isn’t a carbon copy of a Nashville restaurant. It’s very different from how they do it in Nashville, in terms of spices that are used, the heat levels and more. It’s our own twist on Nashville hot chicken.

Rogers Business: How did you get your business from a dream to a reality?

Carolyn: Matt works in the culinary industry. He studied it in school and he’s worked in different countries as a chef. I was working in marketing and event planning when he came up with this idea, which he was very passionate about. I was never keen on doing a nine to five job; it’s something I was doing for a long time at that point, but it just didn’t feel like it was where I needed to be. Matt and I worked very well as a team, so we joined forces – I quit my job and he quit his. We took all of our savings and invested in our business for two years before opening Chica’s in May 2018.

Rogers Business: What made you choose your current location?

Carolyn: We love The Junction. We grew up in Etobicoke, which isn’t too far away. We thought it had a really good sense of community; as a new restaurant, word of mouth and tight-knit communities drive your business. There’s a lot of social media pages for these communities, where locals will share different neighbourhood restaurants with other people. Someone from a condo building across the street would come and try our food, and we’d see a trickle effect of people from the same condo building telling us, “Hey, I heard about you. I was chatting with someone in the elevator.” It’s a really awesome community and everyone is looking out for each other.

Rogers Business: What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a small business owner?

Carolyn: Time management. Right when we opened up in The Junction, we had our first child; we now have two children, so time management and balance were big lessons that we were almost forced to learn. We want to make sure that we’re spending enough time together as a family, but also that the restaurant is getting the attention it needs from us. For us, it’s important that we’re present at the restaurant to talk to our customers and listen to their feedback. We wanted it to have that southern hospitality; our philosophy is that we see Chica’s as our house, and if someone were to walk in your house, you would greet them. We’ve been so lucky with the team that we have because they click really well with our customers; they’re always conversing with them.

Rogers Business: Who or what was your biggest source of support when you started?

Carolyn: Our family, on both sides, was our biggest inspiration. When we were starting up, we didn’t have a lot of financial backing, so we did all of the renovations ourselves. The location wasn’t in the best condition. We were still working at our jobs, so every day after work, we’d go to Chica’s and put in a few hours of work in the evening. We’d paint, redo the floors, renovate the ceiling and everything else. Our family would also help us out after work. Even to this day, they’re very helpful, especially with our kids. Running a restaurant can be unpredictable; employees can call in sick, or something unexpected can happen. We always have to run back and forth to Chica’s, so our family is always there to help by taking care of the kids on short notice. We’ve had their support from the very beginning.

Rogers Business: How did you or do you currently get the word out about your business?

Carolyn: Instagram is probably our most-used tool. I think we have just over 14,000 followers on Instagram, so it’s been very useful for us to get the word out about Chica’s. We do daily posts, stories, promotions and giveaways for our customers to show our appreciation for them.

Rogers Business: What is your best selling product or service? Tell us a little bit about it.

Carolyn: Our best selling product by far is the fried chicken sandwich – specifically the OG sandwich. The OG is dry-spiced and the customers can choose their heat levels; it’s been our most popular menu item since we opened up shop.

Rogers Business: What is your vision for the future of your business?

Carolyn: Expansion. We just opened another location in the Annex, at Bloor and Bathurst. We’ve solidified our brand in The Junction and now we’d like to expand in Toronto. The Annex is another awesome area of the city, and the University of Toronto is really close by, so we’re excited to have opened a Chica’s Chicken there. The area has changed a lot in a good way; there’s so many awesome restaurants and bars nearby. Our hope is people will come in to eat and have a beer with us, and then have a fun night out in the same area.

Rogers Business: What advice would you give to someone else looking to get started?

Carolyn: Plan it out. Matt and I created a business plan before opening so we could budget everything and have a clearer idea of what our goals were for the first five years of our business. I would advise entrepreneurs to focus on planning instead of just opening up and taking a chance, because there’s a lot of risk involved – especially in the restaurant industry after COVID-19. There’s a lot of risk involved in general with opening a business, so having everything planned out and setting goals is the best way to do it.

Rogers Business: What is the biggest challenge you faced as a small business owner and how did you overcome it?

Carolyn: The pandemic was probably the biggest challenge for us. It was so unexpected and things progressed so quickly. With all the business closures and constant unknowns, it was really hard to plan for things. We didn’t lay off staff because it was really important to us that our employees didn’t lose their jobs. We had to reduce their hours, but we tried our best to navigate through it so everyone was secure at the end of the day. I was also pregnant with our second child at the time, so it was tough to ensure that everyone was safe, that everyone had job security and that we could stay open at the same time. We tried to get creative with solutions by offering different takeout specials and finding ways to stay relevant. We were fortunate because we are mainly a takeout business, so we did stay quite busy; we’re very grateful for that, but we still had to close down for a few weeks.

Rogers Business: What is the greatest reward you’ve gotten as a small business owner?

Carolyn: Recognition, in different ways, has been the biggest reward for us. The biggest recognition we’ve had is receiving a Michelin award in September 2022. The award came after five years of business; after all that time and hard work, getting recognition like that meant so much to us. As a quick service restaurant, getting recognized by Michelin was a huge deal to us. Even smaller recognitions – like seeing our customers post about us – means a lot to us.

Rogers Business: If your business has a secret ingredient, what would it be?

Carolyn: I think our secret ingredient is our hospitable environment. We always have loud, fun music playing, and we just want it to be comfortable for our clientele. It’s an open concept restaurant, so the kitchen isn’t in the back; the customers can see everything that’s going on, like preparing and frying the chicken. We like our ambience, because we want the customer to see their food being made and we want people to feel comfortable coming up and chatting with us. If they want to customize anything in their order, we’re happy to do that.

Rogers Business: What’s one thing everyone should know about your business?

Carolyn: Everyone should know that we’re honest about the quality of our food. We don’t try to take shortcuts with anything. If there’s an issue at the restaurant, we’re honest about what’s going on so our customers know about it, and we’re honest about our wait times – we don’t want to lie about that. We always communicate with the customer; I think honesty and communication is important.