Q & A: Owner of Famed Music City Hot Chicken Breaks Down the Roller Coaster Ride of Running a Restaurant During Covid-19

Within the first few months of 2020 disaster struck. Coronavirus hit the entire world by surprise and put a huge damper on the economy. To exam an even more detailed focal point, small businesses ran into big problems. Music City Hot chicken is a local restaurant that is know for serving some of the best fried chicken in town. Even though they are so well know and people would do a lot to get their hand on some beautiful, crispy, packed with flavor chicken, they are still obstacles they have faced. I interviewed 1 of the owners, Sam, who is half owner with his brother, and even their mother has a small stake in the business.

During our brief conversation I found out why this business is so successful, the owners down to their managers, bartenders, cooks and bussers all are fantastic. Sam was extremely cool and talking to him justified why this business is so successful.

Q: How has your staff adjusted to the conditions and have you had to cut down your staff at all?

A: We have definitely had some staff scares about having the virus, but we supported them and gave them the appropriate paid time off. We actually closed down immediately when the virus hit and were comfortable enough to give our staff a decent severance. This was a way that we could keep everyone on and that they would come back to work in a few weeks in hope that we would be able to reopen. We have employees that have kids or live with an older more at risk person so we figured we would take a safer route and not risk anything.

Q: How have you guys adjusted to serving food? Have you taken advantage of outdoor seating?

A: When we reopened we weren’t allowed to have anyone in the dinning room, we used the time and space to redo and redesign some of our interior. When created a to go system/production area to be more efficient in putting meals together and when we were allowed to have people back in the dinning area, we looked at our numbers and we were doing enough business in carry out it didn’t make enough sense to have people inside and again put people at higher risk. It has helped keep the staff’s anxiety down not having to worry about that extra element of being exposed.

Q: Have you guys redesigned your menu’s to cut cost or just simplify for the product order regarding the lack of orders?

A: Yes, initially we were just serving chicken tenders on our menu. You could make it a sandwich or just have the tenders with a side. After a few weeks of that we started doing breast orders, mix orders of chicken, and then wings, that was accompanied with just two side options of fries or coleslaw. As we reopened we’ve gradually built up our menu to bring back all items, Sept. 23. It has been a lot of adapting, we already had a decent take-out business, but we weren’t fully prepared for a full take-out business.It has been a huge learning curve for our staff so we wanted to keep it as simple as possible with a limited menu and figure it out as we go to then get the swing of things and add back to our original menu.

Q: What have you guys done to try and get people to come to the restaurant in these difficult times?

A: We’ve done a couple big fundraisers like for Juneteenth we did a big BLM fundraisers for a new facility in town that is designated specifically for people of color. So we did a big event for that and it turned out to be one of our busiest days ever. During the event we encouraged people to order online and keep their distance in the parking lot and we would just call out their names through the window and they would pick up the order and be on their way. We worked with the director of the program Jamal who had a little both set up to promote the new facility and he would answer any questions and hand out materials about the new cultural enrichment center and it went really well.

Q: Are you guys just doing online orders and calling in for pick-up?

A: We will take orders in person at the window as well. We’re also working with the local delivery service NoCo Nosh which has been great. Historically we have never done delivery. So those few tools have made our customers able to order in a few simple ways.