Shaq's Big Chicken restaurant coming to Orlando
ORLANDO, Fla. - ‘Big’ things are coming to Orlando!
NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal is bringing his Big Chicken restaurant chain to Central Florida! According to its LinkedIn page, the company signed a 45-unit franchising deal with Florida-based DMD Ventures which will bring Big Chicken to several locations across the state including Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
"With this announcement, we’ve officially sold out the state of Florida and pushed our development pipeline to more than 200!! As some would say... GO BIG or go home!!" Big Chicken wrote in the LinkedIn post.
Earlier this year, Big Chicken signed a deal with The Panhandle Restaurant Group to open 40 restaurants along Florida's Panhandle.
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Big Chicken fuses O’Neal’s home-cooked childhood favorites with today’s trending flavors.
"From crispy chicken sandwiches and tenders to Cheez-It crusted mac n’ cheese and hand-crafted ice cream shakes, each menu item tells a story all while offering guests an inside look into the life and personality of Shaquille O’Neal," the restaurant group wrote in a press release.
If the menu is anything like the one in Las Vegas, diners could enjoy several varieties of chicken sandwiches including the Shaq Attack (pepper jack cheese, jalapeño slaw, spicy chipotle bbq sauce) and the Charles Barkley (mac & cheese, crispy fried onions, roasted garlic bbq aioli). To kick your 'wich up a notch, you can choose from several tasty sauces.
The menu also offers sliders and several side dishes like Dirty Fries (cheese sauce, bacon, banana peppers, chipotle bbq), Jalapeño slaw, and Lucille's mac n' cheese.
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Opening Big Chicken in Orlando seems like a no-brainer: it's where Shaq lived and played for the Magic for years.
Big Chicken currently has a couple of locations open in the U.S. (Glendale, California and Las Vegas) and on two Carnival Cruise ships.