It’s an abundance of riches for fans of Nashville-style hot chicken sandwiches. As The Burn has been reporting, an upstart restaurant brand called Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken is bringing not one, not two, but three locations to Loudoun County simultaneously.
We made a trip to each location to check on the progress and it appears the Leesburg location may be the farthest along (photo at top).
It’s going into a spot at the Leesburg Plaza along East Market Street near the Books-A-Million bookstore and right next door to Giovanni’s New York Pizza. There were construction workers on site, building out the interior.
The Joe’s location in Sterling is going into a former Subway sandwich shop at the Town Center at Sterling at Route 7 and Dranesville Road. (Full Disclosure: Technically, this may be across the line in Fairfax County, but it’s still Sterling.)
There was no activity in the space when we stopped by this week, and it was hard to tell if any work had been done yet. But there were building permits in the window, so things are in motion.
The final spot in Loudoun County is in Ashburn — at the Cameron Chase Village Center. That’s the shopping plaza next to the Ashburn Ice House.
This Hangry Joe’s is going into a space previously occupied by a Japanese restaurant. A look in the window didn’t reveal much activity yet, but again it was a little hard to tell.
Hangry Joe’s launched a few years ago in the Richmond area and quickly started expanding into Northern Virginia. It’s the brainchild of the same entrepreneur who started the Sweet Frog fro-yo chain.
It’s now got dozens of locations open and in the works in at least 12 states.
As we’ve discussed in past stories — when a hot new concept comes along, a bunch of brands race into the space in hopes of being one of the dominant ones that survives the shakeout that will ultimately come.
Hot chicken sandwiches are a popular trend in restaurants right now and Hangry Joe’s clearly wants to be a contender.
The closest Hangry Joe’s locations to Loudoun currently are in Herndon and Centreville. (The Burn sampled a hot chicken sandwich at the C’ville store and — not gonna lie — it was very good.)
With three stores on their way — and probably other brands eventually too — we’ll soon be neck deep in hot chicken sandwiches. Stay tuned.