Fresh off opening its first Rhode Island unit in Cranston, Love & Honey Fried Chicken is pushing into Massachusetts with a structured franchise recruitment effort targeting Greater Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester, Springfield, and both the South Shore and North Shore corridors.
For foodservice equipment dealers and kitchen designers active in the Northeast, the expansion signals a pipeline of fast-casual build-outs requiring the frying, prep, and refrigeration infrastructure that supports a hand-dredged, made-fresh chicken program. Each new unit will need a commercial kitchen capable of supporting high-volume fry stations, scratch-made sauce and sides production, and cold-chain storage aligned with the brand's Halal, antibiotic-free chicken sourcing through Coleman Farms.
Supply Chain & Kitchen Ops
A national supply agreement with Sysco underpins the brand's scale strategy, providing distribution consistency as new franchisees commission their kitchens. That kind of centralized distribution relationship typically simplifies smallwares and consumables procurement for new operators, but equipment selection for frying platforms, holding cabinets, and refrigerated prep tables remains a franchisee-level decision—giving local dealers a clear entry point. Operators evaluating the concept should plan back-of-house layouts around the throughput demands of a hand-dredge, fresh-fry model, which differs meaningfully from a par-fried or heat-and-serve chicken program in terms of fryer capacity, hood sizing, and grease management. Consultants specifying small-footprint fast-casual kitchens in dense urban markets like Cambridge or Somerville will need to balance production capacity with tight square footage constraints common to Greater Boston real estate.
Franchise Structure
Love & Honey is prioritizing experienced, multi-unit operators and is offering a $5,000 discount on the franchise fee for veterans, along with multi-unit incentives. Laura Lyons, Co-Founder and CEO, noted that the brand's reception in New York, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania validates the Northeast appetite for chef-driven fast casual. President Geoff Goodman, a Boston native, framed Massachusetts as a "food-forward market" where operator quality and community connection drive repeat visits.
Founded in Philadelphia in 2017, Love & Honey has built its identity around hand-dredged fried chicken prepared fresh to order, scratch-made sauces, and what the brand calls heartfelt hospitality. That culinary positioning—closer to a polished chef-driven concept than a commodity fast-food chicken chain—has direct implications for kitchen design: expect longer ticket times than a conveyor-fry operation, greater reliance on skilled BOH labor, and a prep footprint that supports daily sauce and side production from raw ingredients.
Operators and consultants tracking fast-casual chicken expansion in the Northeast can follow related cooking-equipment specification trends and dealer-channel activity in the region as the brand's Massachusetts build-out progresses.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
