When Hattie B’s Hot Chicken opened in the Factory at Franklin in November 2023, it wasn’t just another location for the 13-restaurant hot chicken favorite. It was a homecoming.
“Franklin is a special place for us,” says Nick Bishop, Jr. “We opened our first restaurant, Bishop’s Meat & 3, in Cool Springs almost 18 years ago, so we know and love this community. We were honored to bring Hattie B’s to The Factory in 2023. We love the character and soul of the building.”
The restaurant is chockful of factory charm in Building 14, right beside the iconic Rusty the Metal Man statue off of Liberty Pike. The walls are lined with waffle and hot chicken sandwich wallpaper, a mix of red and white tables and original windows flooding the space with light and allowing views of the folks waiting in line.
Hattie’s B’s story had modest beginnings in a much quieter corner of Franklin. In 2007, Nick Bishop, Sr., a restaurant industry veteran, opened Bishop’s Meat & 3, a traditional offering to the Nashville classic.The year before he had retired but, as he likes to say, “it didn’t take.” In 2010, the Bishops started experimenting with hot chicken spices in the back of the kitchen, and the idea for Hattie B’s took shape.
“We were blown away by how many orders of hot chicken we were serving each day,” Nick Sr. says. “We kept tweaking our blend until it had heat and flavor to the bone.” By 2011, they’d added customizable heat levels, and the next summer, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken opened in Nashville’s Midtown.
The father-and-son-owned restaurant has become known for its options when it comes to spice level, from “Southern Style” (that’s no heat) all the way up to “Shut the Cluck Up!” which is a hot-as-heck combo of ghost, habanero and cayenne peppers. Pair that heat with Southern sides like pimento mac-and-cheese and potato salad, with cool, creamy banana pudding for dessert.
Hattie was a name shared by several women in the Bishop family so it made sense to give the restaurant the moniker of family matriarch.
The Bishops aren’t entrepreneurs who let grass grow under their feet. In the last 13 years, they’ve opened more than a dozen locations including seven in Tennessee alone, plus Alabama, Georgia, Nevada and Texas, with more on the way! One is in the works adjacent to the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field. And the expansion is not limited to locations.
On weekends, the Hattie B’s kitchen is cooking up a special brunch menu.This isn’t your average biscuit-and-gravy lineup.
Hattie B's Brunch
Brian Morris, executive chef and vice president of culinary, describes the signature breakfast item as “a pillowy buttermilk biscuit with hot chicken and delicious add-ons including a sweet-and-salty honey butter glaze or housemade bacon-laced pimento cheese.”
There are also hot chicken biscuits with bacon, egg and cheese, chicken and waffles and tater tots with beer cheese dip. That last part is made using Hattie B’s custom-brewed ale with Jackalope Brewing Company. In the mood for something stronger than coffee? Breakfast cocktails include the dill pickle-infused Bloody Mary or the “Shack Water” (which is Hattie B’s take on Ranch Water).
In addition, this summer, Hattie B’s introduced its first major menu addition in nearly a decade at every location except the Nashville International Airport and in Las Vegas.
Hattie B's Salad
The Southern Salad includes hot chicken bites (you choose the spice level, fried or grilled) on a bed of mixed greens, carrots and red cabbage. Of course, you have your choice of dressings, including roasted garlic vinaigrette, creamy poppy seed, ranch, honey mustard or blue cheese.
Then you can customize it even more with smoky bacon, Tillamook cheddar, sweet corn & black-eyed pea succotash and toasted cornbread croutons.
The goal, Morris says, was to make one salad that could appeal to just about anyone. “It can be the best salad you’ve ever had, or the best guilt-free hot chicken you’ve ever had.”
“Our mission has been the same from day one,” Nick Sr. adds while summarizing the family business. “To provide authentic Nashville hot chicken served with Southern hospitality in a fun, high-energy environment.”
Hattie B's Hot Chicken
This story is sponsored and ran as part of Eat, Imbibe, & Explore