After its debut in Los Angeles and attracting franchisees in western states—it has five units open in California—The Red Chickz is extending its reach on the opposite coast. With deals signed in New Jersey and North Carolina, the brand is on to Connecticut, where it Yama Qaderi plans to open three restaurants.
Shawn Lalehzarian, co-founder and CEO of The Red Chickz, said when looking for new franchisees, he’s seeking qualities that go beyond experience.
For Lalehzarian, those qualifiers include having a leadership mindset while staying coachable, with an ability to follow a system. It’s why the executive is confident in the brand’s latest franchisee, Yama Qaderi, who brings more time in the medical space than in restaurants.
“My background is in healthcare,” Qaderi said. “I’ve been working as a critical care physician assistant for almost 20 years. I love what I do and it’s a great deal, but at the same time, I’ve always been looking to branch out elsewhere and become my own boss.”
Los Angeles-based The Red Chickz touts its crunchy hot chicken.
Qaderi will be the boss of three Red Chickz restaurants in Connecticut. Becoming an owner by way of franchising, he said, gives him an advantage in operations and customer appeal.
“The beauty of franchising is you have the name recognition, and there’s power behind that,” Qaderi said. “I did go briefly into a restaurant on my own, and it takes a lot of time, effort and money. Even with all of that, you’re not guaranteed to survive. With a franchise, you have that recognition, you have a name that goes with it, and people know it. That helps get you a leg up. You also have the power of the parent company to support you.”
Finding the right brand took a few years, but Qaderi said the decision to franchise with The Red Chickz felt right because of the quality menu. Qaderi said the Nashville-style hot chicken from the concept is “a game changer,” and he believed it was better than others in the category. In addition to the product, Qaderi said he was convinced by the brand’s ease of operations.
“Everything is streamlined,” Qaderi said. “That was a selling point. It’s all very efficient. They’ve taken care of almost all of the minutia. When you go in, everything is standardized, you don’t have to worry about variances. What’s left is getting the employees up to speed and making sure we have what we need to take care of day-to-day operations. The guess work isn’t there.”
Making the concept easy to run was a goal for Lalehzarian, who said there’s a platform for owners to build more growth in the future.
“It’s still work, but we have simplified every step so it’s not that challenging or complicated to operate,” Lalehzarian said. “We want our franchisees to be leaders who can see the bigger picture, carry a sense of urgency and be willing to commit to the brand, and Yama has everything we’re looking for.”
The deal with Qaderi is one of several the California-based franchise has made with developers on the East Coast. Founded in 2018 and franchising since 2021, The Red Chickz also has new franchisees opening restaurants in New Jersey and North Carolina.
Shawn Lalehzarian is the co-founder and CEO of The Red Chickz.
“Initially, when we started franchising, for the first year or so, we were only expanding in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas,” Lalehzarian said. “We wanted to make sure that we could support our franchisees out of state and streamline any hiccups we might have in distribution. Once we had those hiccups out of the way, we opened the entire nation to franchising.”
The strategy moving forward, Lalehzarian said, will be developing both coasts, and working toward the center from each side of the country. The brand has five locations open in California, with another set to open soon in the Golden State. Four more are in development, too, and are set to open in the first quarter of 2026.
Future growth, Lalehzarian said, is coming in the form of multi-unit agreements, with deals requiring a minimum of three locations.
“Our goal is to have less franchisees with more franchise units,” Lalehzarian said. “We would love to have fewer franchisees with 345 units, versus having 100 franchisees with each owning 100 units.”
The initial investment to open a Red Chickz, which has an average square footage of 1,500, ranges from $424,700 to $883,200.