BY IVY SIMMONS

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On a warm Monday evening during football season, it’s a jungle. Televisions blare with the football game of the night as fans sitting at the bar enjoy beers and friendly debate about the last touchdown. The smells of wings and fries fill the air while waiters frantically clean tables to accommodate more guests. The lone cashier, working on the pick-up and delivery side, juggles answering the non-stop ringing phone while handling the register. It’s chaos.

     The Kickin' Chicken might appear to be like any other busy sports bar, but there is more to the restaurant than just food and football games. “One thing that people wouldn’t know about our franchise is that we’ve branched out to the community,” says co-owner David Miller.

     Miller works with Outreach Pantry, which helps families struggling financially. His co-owner, Bobby Perry, leads the Carolina Miracle League, which raises money for children with special needs. And Chip Roberts, their third partner, works with Camp Happy Days, which also does outreach for children with special needs. They also award four scholarships a year to their employees enrolled in college. 

     They’ve been able to devote time and money to the causes thanks to the success of the business they first envisioned in 1997. Their plan for a food-delivery service soon expanded to the idea of opening 20 to 25 restaurants in North and South Carolina, but life had a way of altering their blueprint. “We were slowed by the deterioration of the 2008 economy,” says Miller. “So we had to be financially conservative.” They were able to build two restaurants in Charleston and one in Columbia, and they plan to build five to seven more in South Carolina over the next three to four years, says Miller.

     In 16 years, the franchise is still making progress in spite of financial constraints, and it’s still helping others. “We now have a company with over 350 employees,” says Miller. “We’ve learned from our mistakes.”