GAME CHANGERS MAGAZINE | 44
Homemade Chicken with Homemade Love :
Big Chic , Growing the Family Business
BY CHILTON STEWART
Chances are if you live in South Metro Atlanta and you love fried chicken , the chicken sandwich , grilled chicken , Bar BQ chicken , chicken tenders , a two piece dark , a two piece white or even chicken gizzards then you ’ ve eaten at or at least heard of Big Chic restaurant . This South Metro Atlanta institution has two locations in LoveJoy and McDonough and has been around for almost 50 years under different owners .
Today ’ s owners are Jason and Edreani McKenzie , a power couple that spent years developing and honing their entrepreneurial skills before becoming the proud owners of this establishment .
“ We ’ ve been eating at Bic Chic for years at the McDonough location and we went by there one day and we saw the business up for sale . Me and my wife wanted a chicken restaurant for years .”
But the success of the restaurant didn ’ t come overnight . As Jason and Edreani worked for and created other businesses for years before perfecting the chicken restaurant business .
“ I worked at Toys R Us for a couple of years and I thought why put all this out for someone else when I can do it for myself . So the first business we started was a carpet cleaning business and we did that for about 6 years and wanted to go to a higher level . Then an opportunity came up with Big Chic .” Says Jason explaining that the couple plan to move aggressively to expand the restaurant to other parts of GA .
Pictured above : Owners are Jason and Edreani McKenzie
“ The next big move is we want to get another brick and mortar location ... that and we want to get a food truck . We want to expand into the food truck arena .”
Part of the success of Jason and Edreani ’ s version of Big Chic ( besides the amazing food ) is the couple puts such an emphasis on hiring the right people and making sure those employees understand the value of customer service .
“ The obstacle that we think about is the right employees . Finding the right people to trust to run your business . You can have 20 locations but if you don ’ t have the right people giving customer service and cooking the food according how you told them to do serving people . It ’ s going to be a struggle . Finding the right people to run your business when you are not there .”
Yet despite the power couples phenomenal success and plans for expanding the brand they still focus on doing more for their community by starting a non profit to help the homeless . “ We give back to the community that we are from . What we really do is just give people inspiration . We do give a lot of inspiration to people who want to be entrepreneurs who want to start a restaurant . Who want to start their businesses , Black business .
“ We collect stuff for the homeless . We make food for them . Once we did that people were coming to the lobby to donate .”
It is no great surprise that a couple that shares this much love for each other can translate that love into food for a community that loves them back .