Another chicken finger restaurant comes to NC. This one’s different, CEO says
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Guthrie's opens first North Carolina restaurant in Raleigh on Nov. 4, 2025.
- Company plans nine new restaurants in the Carolinas in the next six months.
- Guthrie's serves chicken finger combo meals and sandwiches.
Forty years ago, Joe Kelly Guthrie was spending his days in his family’s restaurant in Haleyville, Alabama, learning the business and cooking meals such as hamburgers, shrimp, and steak and fish sandwiches.
Today, he is the CEO of Guthrie’s, a chicken finger chain with dozens of locations across 12 — soon to be 13 — states.
Next month, the chain’s first North Carolina restaurant is scheduled to open in Raleigh.
“The Triangle has been on our mind for at least 35 years,” Guthrie told The News & Observer in a phone interview. “We hate that it’s taken us this long to get there, but we’ve wanted a shot at this area for a very, very long time.”
Guthrie’s built a new restaurant, complete with a drive-thru and indoor dining room, near the busy intersection of Wake Forest and Six Forks roads.
It’s expected to open Tuesday, Nov. 4, Guthrie said, though that date could be changed. The restaurant will employ about 50-60 people.
“If you’re from Raleigh or visiting Raleigh or anything, we believe you’re going to pass by this location at some point or another, if you’re there for a few days,” Guthrie said. “And we love the area.”
What is Guthrie’s?
Founded by Guthrie’s father, Hal Guthrie, in the 1960s, the original Guthrie’s location served a more expansive menu of Southern comfort foods.
CEO Joe Kelly Guthrie took a liking to the business early on.
“I could run our whole kitchen by myself at a decent lunch rush by the time I was 12 years old, and none of my other brothers and sisters really wanted to do that or had that inclination,” the CEO said.
Still, Joe Kelly wasn’t the only sibling who has played a role in the family business. His older brother Chris was the person who sparked the Guthrie’s expansion. In 1982, the second Guthrie’s opened in Auburn, Alabama, in an old Sonic. They added a partition down the middle of the restaurant to divide the kitchen, about 10 feet by 20 feet, from the dining room, with seating for 54 customers.
Because the restaurant was so small, there wasn’t enough room to handle the full menu at the original Guthrie’s. So the family served only the most popular items from the Haleyville restaurant to Auburn: hamburgers, fish sandwiches, steak sandwiches, chicken finger sandwiches and chicken finger meals.
Less than two months after opening, the Auburn menu had dwindled down to the items representing the majority of sales — chicken fingers.
How Guthrie’s has grown
In 1984, Guthrie’s expanded to its third location and its first outside of Alabama. The restaurant in Athens, Georgia, near the University of Georgia campus, was the world’s first chicken finger restaurant with a drive-thru, Guthrie said.
The fourth location opened in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1991. The fifth opened in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1992. By the early 2000s, the family had opened about 20 restaurants.
As Guthrie’s started to grow, other chicken finger brands entered the market. The first Zaxbys opened in 1990. Raising Cane’s first opened in 1996.
“We started seeing competition pop up everywhere,” Guthrie said. “And that’s when we decided to start franchising because we didn’t want anybody to get too far ahead.”
Franchising led to the opening of many restaurants, but Guthrie’s had to close “quite a few” of them during the 2007-08 financial crisis.
Since then, the company has been expanding. It tried out some new menu items, but ultimately, Guthrie’s stuck to its chicken finger roots.
“My father invented that chicken finger box,” Guthrie said. “If you see any form of a chicken finger plate or a box, and it’s got chicken fingers and french fries and any form of toast or slaw, or any other little different thing, it came from my dad and from my family.”
Chicken finger trends
The way Guthrie sees it, the only way for the chicken finger restaurant to go is up.
Chicken finger restaurant brands — including Guthrie’s, Raising Cane’s and Zaxbys — have grown into a $15 billion per year industry, Guthrie said. And in 20 years, it’ll be at least an $80 billion per year industry.
Instead of hamburger restaurants dotting the corners of every town in America, Guthrie said, it’ll be chicken finger restaurants.
And Guthrie’s plans to continue meeting the demand for golden-fried chicken tenders in the Carolinas. Nine restaurants will open in South Carolina and North Carolina in the next six months, Guthrie said, in addition to the forthcoming Raleigh and Columbia, South Carolina locations.
“We’re a little bit biased, but we will happily put our food in a blind taste test against any other chicken finger restaurant, and we feel confident that we’re going to prevail in that,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie’s CEO go-to order
Guthrie’s doesn’t offer a diverse menu. The biggest differences are in the size of the meal.
Hungry customers can order the Big Box Combo, which comes with six chicken fingers, crispy crinkle fries, Texas toast, slaw and two signature dipping sauces. The slightly smaller Original Box Combo comes with five chicken fingers, fries, slaw and one sauce.
The 4 Finger Combo and 3 Finger Snack Combo have chicken fingers, fries, and one signature sauce, but no slaw. Only the larger combo meal has Texas toast.
Joe Kelly Guthrie’s go-to order is the Sandwich Combo. Chicken fingers and lettuce are served on a bun slathered with the restaurant’s signature sauce, with a side of fries.
“I can’t prove it, but since 1978, and with me working in the restaurants nearly every day all my life, I’ve eaten more chicken fingers, and I’ve cooked more chicken fingers than anybody in the world,” Guthrie said. “So I have a, I guess you would call it an expertise on chicken finger taste.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Another chicken finger restaurant comes to NC. This one’s different, CEO says."
