David Alan Bubbus Jr., the founder of David’s Burgers of Little Rock, is launching a new restaurant: Jess’s Chicken.
He says the opening date for the 3,000-SF restaurant, at 10907 N. Rodney Parham Road, once the site of a Black Angus restaurant, is about 90 days away.
Like David’s Burgers, Jess’s will have a limited menu. Bubbus compared the concept to Chick-fil-A or Raising Cane’s with a focus on fried chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches. Bubbus promises a devotion to speed and quality at Jess’s.
“I’m very excited about this concept,” he said.
Arkansas Business has written previously about the popularity of fried chicken. “The reason that it has big growth is because it has big advantages,” Bubbus said. “The biggest one is food cost. Chicken is just much cheaper, unless you’re selling chicken wings. Wingstop has a tough go right now because wings are $5 to $6 a pound.”
In addition to Jess’s Chicken, a 10th David’s Burgers restaurant will open in a couple of months in the 3800 block of Central Avenue in Hot Springs, he said.
Bubbus said the proliferation of chicken restaurants doesn’t worry him. “Our philosophy is just go beat ’em,” he said. “If people want something and there’s a demand for it, our job is to win.”
