The New Unit
Chicken Salad Chick will open its first West Virginia restaurant on September 16 in Barboursville, bringing the made-from-scratch fast casual concept to 26 states and a systemwide count of more than 345 units. The location at 21 Tanyard Station Drive in the Tanyard Station shopping center is owned and operated by Tammy and Rancie Hannah, a husband-and-wife team making their debut as franchise operators.
The grand opening runs September 16–20, with the first 100 guests in line on opening day eligible to win free chicken salad for a year — the top prize being one large Quick Chick per week for 52 weeks. Daily giveaways through Sunday include branded tumblers, tote bags, and a complimentary return-visit meal, structured to drive consecutive-day traffic during launch week.
Franchisee Background
The Hannahs bring professional service-sector backgrounds rather than food and beverage experience. Tammy spent more than 30 years in pharmaceutical sales at Pfizer; Rancie is a practicing physician specializing in hospice care in Russell, Kentucky. The couple discovered the brand as longtime customers and agreed to open both the West Virginia location and a future Ashland, Kentucky unit, seeding a small regional cluster that fits the chain's hub-and-spoke development approach in smaller metro markets.
For chains like Chicken Salad Chick that depend on franchisee-driven growth, owner-operators with community ties and service-oriented backgrounds are a deliberate recruitment target. The Hannahs are active members of Greenup Christian Church and plan to leverage local relationships — including a pre-opening fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House — to build early trial among a customer base that skews heavily toward lunch daypart and catering occasions.
Brand Expansion Context
"Expanding Chicken Salad Chick's reach to West Virginia is another milestone in our brand's development momentum this year," said Scott Deviney, CEO and president of Chicken Salad Chick, noting that first-unit openings in New York and Michigan are also on the horizon.
The chain's format — dine-in, takeout, third-party delivery, and catering — positions it squarely in the better-fast-casual segment where off-premise and catering mix have become key revenue levers since 2020. Its dozen-plus chicken salad varieties, rotating gourmet soups, and scratch-made sides give operators a differentiated menu in markets where QSR chicken competition is already dense. Catering, in particular, offers franchise operators a high-margin revenue channel that can offset the traffic variability typical of single-daypart concepts.
The CSC Foundation, the brand's charitable arm, supports CURE Childhood Cancer and local food banks through in-restaurant fundraisers — a community-engagement layer that regional franchise groups like the Hannahs can activate to drive repeat visits and local press in smaller markets where word-of-mouth still moves the needle. For context on how fast casual brands are expanding their catering and off-premise programs, see our coverage of foodservice and catering trends and fast casual franchise growth.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
