It’s Official: Hattie B’s Hot Chicken Is Coming to Set Atlanta on Fire

Your finger-lickin’, mouth-burnin’ dreams are coming true. After mulling it over for more than a year, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, one of Nashville’s favorite purveyors of flaming-hot yardbird, is officially coming to Atlanta. The growing brand has signed a lease at a prime Candler Park address: 299 Moreland Ave. NE, right across from Wrecking Bar Brewpub and just south of Little Five Points.

Nick Bishop Sr. and Nick Bishop Jr., Hattie B’s father-and-son ownership team, and executive chef John Lasater are eyeing a late-2017 debut. The space, which has been vacant for years, was originally a prototype of a Phillips 66 gas station, and most recently was home to a laundromat, covers about 2,800 square feet and will offer seating for 150 in the dining room and on a partially covered patio. There will also be an outdoor area with games such as corn hole.

Reached by phone, Bishop Jr. said Atlanta “was kind of at the top of the list” when the decision was made to expand the restaurant beyond Nashville. The team looked at locations all over the city, including Midtown and Westside, but settled on the Moreland Avenue building because it “spoke to Hattie B’s and the neighborhood and community we’re going into.”

“Everything about it just felt right,” Bishop Jr. said. “I really feel like we have the opportunity to do what I think will be one of our best Hattie B’s stores, just from the look and the feel of the space itself.”

Google Maps

The first Hattie B’s restaurant, a spin-off of the family’s Bishop’s Meet & Three, opened in Midtown Nashville in August 2012. There are currently two Music City outposts and a third on the way, and in June, Hattie B’s opened its first out-of-state location in Southside Birmingham, Ala. Bishop Jr. indicated further expansion into the Atlanta market is possible.

The forthcoming restaurant will stick to the same menu Hattie B’s has deployed at its previous locations. Fried chicken, sourced from Rick Hobson at Nashville-based Choice Food Group, will be available in six spice levels — Southern (no heat at all), mild, medium, hot, damn hot, and “shut the cluck up” — and it will be complemented by sides such as Southern greens, coleslaw, and pimento mac and cheese. The beer list will focus on local brews.

Nashville-style hot chicken, which was introduced by the Prince family nearly a century ago and has seen its meteoric rise in popularity thanks in part to Hattie B’s, has captivated America in recent years. Chefs in cities across the country — and even KFC — have been inspired to create their own versions (Richards’ Southern Fried and West Egg Cafe’s Oddbird pop-up are among the local examples). However, outside of Nashville, the heat levels rarely come close to what diners can experience in the Music City. This could be a result of chefs fearing their patrons, who might not be familiar with the authentic product, would not want to eat chicken that is so damn spicy.

If you’re looking for the real thing, fear not. Hattie B’s has no intention of toning it down to account for Atlantans’ taste buds.

“I think one of the things we’ve done well is being able to offer a pretty wide range of heat levels,” Bishop Jr. said. “If you want to blow your head off, you can go all the way up to ‘shut the cluck up,’ and that will be the same as it is in Birmingham, as it is in Nashville.

“We don’t plan on toning the heat level down if you want it, but you better know what you’re doing.”

Joseph Woodley

• Nashville-Based Hattie B's Hot Chicken Is Eyeing Atlanta Expansion [EATL]
• Hattie B's Unleashes Nashville Hot Chicken On Birmingham Starting Today [ENSH]
• Nashville's Old School and New School Hot Chicken Go Head to Head [E]
• KFC Rips Off Nashville and Adds Hot Chicken to Its Menu [E]

Watch: This pizza’s crust is fried chicken