The Chickery, the Toronto-based fast casual founded by celebrity Chef David Adjey of Food Network fame, has signed a lease in Washington, D.C., to open a corporate location in Dupont Circle. The new site — which takes the place of a burger restaurant — is located at 1300 Connecticut Ave., right next to Chop’t Creative Salad Company and with other neighboring tenants like Panera Bread and Krispy Kreme.
The Chickery has partnered with Fransmart, the franchise development company behind the explosive growth of brands like Five Guys Burgers and Fries and Qdoba Mexican Grill, and is expanding worldwide through a combination of company- and franchise-owned stores. Fransmart will serve as The Chickery’s exclusive franchise development partner, and they have also invested in The Chickery via FranInvest — Fransmart’s new private equity firm for growing restaurant concepts — to own a controlling interest in the brand.
Fransmart CEO, Dan Rowe, says, “The site we found is a perfect balance of where consumers live, shop, work, and entertain. The area is always busy, seven days a week, through both lunch and dinner day parts.”
With expansion plans underway for the U.S., The Chickery plans to use D.C. as a starting point and flagship location for the brand’s U.S. operations. Toronto, The Chickery’s original location, will serve as the headquarters where the brand is already opening corporate restaurants throughout the city in high traffic sites and gathering areas.
The Chickery’s expansion includes a unit in the food court at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto to open in September 2015, as well as a multi-unit agreement in place for development in the Middle East.
The Chickery Founder and Head Chef, David Adjey, is a native Canadian but has worked in both California and New York and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. He said of opening up in America, “It’s a big honor to make my return to the U.S. as the owner of a restaurant. We are working with Fransmart now, who is based in D.C., and after they showed me areas like Dupont Circle, Chinatown, and Bethesda, I just fell in love.”
