For the past few weeks, the mystery surrounding the opening of a new uptown restaurant has kept Twitter users guessing. The mystery was solved Sunday when Lady B's Fried Chicken introduced itself on Twitter.
Lady B’s is going to replace OMG! Rotisserie at 19 S. Court St. It will now deliver, as well as help local charities with every transaction. It is going to serve fried chicken, chicken tenders and sandwiches in a casual, counter-service eatery, according to the Twitter page.
The opening day and time is going to be announced Sunday at 8 p.m.
Sheldon Andrus, partner of Rutter Hospitality and co-owner of OMG! Rotisserie, said the new fried chicken place is going to be a new concept, as his wife, Bethany, suggested fried chicken to him and the other partners in April.
“The more we talked about the concept, we really flushed it out as a stand-alone kind of idea,” Andrus said. “That’s kind of how the whole thing came about.”
Andrus said they are interested in the test market of college students and want to figure out what is popular among the demographic.
OMG! Rotisserie on 139 Columbus Rd. is not going to change.
“OMG! Rotisserie is not going anywhere,” Andrus said. “We will not be touching that.”
Lady B’s is different from OMG! because the company’s primary objective is to help charities in Athens, Andrus said.
While the exact idea behind the philanthropic work hasn’t been figured out yet by Andrus and his partners, they do know that they want to give away a portion of every transaction to help southern Ohio.
The company owners believe that they shouldn’t just exist solely for making money, and feel they have been called to be more than that, Andrus said.
“Lady B’s has desired and will have some strong philanthropic opportunities,” Andrus said. “Every transaction we make here, we want to be targeting a portion of it to better our community.”
Bianca Long, a senior studying journalism strategic communication, said she will be one of the people standing in the long queue when Lady B’s opens as she is excited to see the vibe of the new restaurant.
“I am looking forward to whatever it is that they do,” Long said.
Long found the social media strategy to be brilliant and innovative, as they were funny and followed back everyone.
She frequented OMG! Rotisserie about once every two weeks for her favorite banana pudding, which she said tastes like her mom’s, and the mac and cheese.
Cody Shafer, an engineer at the Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, said that the opening of the new fried chicken restaurant will not attract the health conscious population. Shafer, however, will eat the fried chicken.
“For me, I would prefer anything fried,” Shafer said. “I suppose I am more of an anomaly.”
He is not bothered by the name change of the chicken place as long as the food tastes the same.
After positive feedback, Andrus aims to open another Lady B’s restaurant, which is named after his wife, in about a year.
