Former B.T.’s location in Worcester to become sister restaurant of popular healthy eatery
Photo | Tim Doyle
The former location of B.T.'s Fried Chicken & BBQ in Worcester will soon be the site of a new restaraunt focused on Nashville hot chicken.
The owners of NU Kitchen in Worcester will partner with a New Hampshire entrepreneur to open a restaurant focused on Nashville hot chicken in the building formerly occupied by B.T.'s Fried Chicken and BBQ in Worcester.
NU Chicken plans on operating from the 2,540-square-foot restaurant at 318 Park Ave., a location B.T.’s operated from 2020 until February, when it announced it would be closing the location.
Building permits allowing for the installation of signage advertising the restaurant’s Nashville hot chicken offerings were issued in June, according to BLDUP, a website which tracks real estate and construction projects and permits. Job postings seeking a line cook and front counter worker for NU Chicken have been posted to hiring website Indeed.
NU Chicken Worcester LLC, an entity formed in New Hampshire sharing an address with the restaurant, has been created by Aaron Smith of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, according to filings with the New Hampshire Department of State.
Smith is working with Josh VanDyke and Douglas Zavala, owners of NU Kitchen in Worcester, Newburyport and Somerville, to open the restaurant, which he wrote will be a sister restaurant to the NU Kitchen concept.
“We love Nashville hot chicken, but we were never happy about how we felt after,” Smith wrote in an email to WBJ. “We set out to make the best tasting fried chicken with ingredients you can feel good about.”
Smith wrote the chicken will be hormone free and fried in 100% avocado oil. The planned Worcester restaurant will be the first NU Chicken location, with plans to open towards the end of July.
Nashville hot chicken is a spicy version of fried chicken often served over bread with pickles. First created in the 1930s, the style of chicken has exploded in popularity over the last decade, with large fast-food companies jumping on the trend and a 65.7% increase in mentions of hot chicken on menus from 2018 to 2023, according to CNBC.
NU Chicken’s arrival in Central Massachusetts comes amid the opening of a number of chicken-focused restaurants since 2024, including Dave’s Hot Chicken in Worcester, Cluck & Crispy Chicken in Worcester, and bb.q Chicken in Shrewsbury. A number of fast food restaurants offering chicken are also planning new locations in Worcester, including Checkers, Chick-fil-A, and Raising Cane’s.
While BT’s Fried Chicken and BBQ closed its Worcester location in February, it continues to operate its original B.T.’s Smokehouse location in Sturbridge.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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