Maryland Market Entry

Big Chicken, the fast-casual chicken concept founded by Shaquille O'Neal and backed by Craveworthy Brands, JRS Hospitality and Authentic Brands Group, opens its first standalone Maryland restaurant on August 8 at Waugh Chapel Towne Centre in Gambrills — a suburban node roughly 15 miles southwest of Baltimore that anchors the brand's push into the broader District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia corridor.

The unit represents a strategic step beyond the arena-concessions model that introduced Big Chicken to Maryland fans at Baltimore's CFG Bank Arena. Standalone storefronts generate higher per-unit revenue potential and broader daypart coverage than venue-embedded outlets, making the Gambrills site a more direct test of the concept's consumer draw in a competitive fast-casual landscape.

The Operator

Franchisee Pratik Patel, a multi-unit operator with more than 15 years of hospitality experience and an existing quick-service portfolio spanning Howard and Anne Arundel counties, is leading the location. His prior footprint in the region provides operational infrastructure and community relationships that corporate-driven openings typically lack — a profile consistent with Big Chicken's stated growth model of pairing expansion markets with established local operators.

"Gambrills is a special place, and it's the right fit to bring something new that matches its energy," Patel said. Josh Halpern, CEO of Big Chicken, framed the unit as a template: "The right place, the right partner and a whole lot of BIG Flavor is how we grow."

Menu and Expansion Context

The Gambrills menu spans signature chicken sandwiches — including The Shaq Attack and The Ultimate, loaded with mac and cheese and crispy onion rings — alongside tenders, hand-spun milkshakes and Shaq Snacks, the brand's crispy tenders served on garlic toast. Coinciding with the opening, Big Chicken is rolling out "Big Dip Energy," a rotating limited-time sauce program, with Root Beer BBQ as the inaugural monthly drop. The rotating-sauce mechanic is a low-cost traffic driver common in fast-casual chicken, where new limited-time offerings consistently outperform static menus on visit frequency.

With more than 40 locations open and additional units in development across arenas, airports and cruise ships, Big Chicken is navigating the scaling challenge that defines celebrity-backed restaurant concepts: translating outsized brand awareness into repeatable unit economics across diverse venue types. The Gambrills opening is among its most conventional retail footprints to date, which makes it a meaningful data point for prospective franchisees evaluating the system.

For broader context on fast-casual chicken's continued expansion dynamics, see our coverage of category growth trends and analysis of celebrity-backed restaurant franchises.

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.