Hot Box Chicken Fingers and Tots opened Saturday on Court Street, providing Athens with a new twist on the classic chicken tenders and fries.
Located at 74 N. Court St., Hot Box is open from 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. The dining room will close at 10 p.m. with a walk-up window available.
Menu items include fresh-to-order chicken tender "Hot Boxes" with a choice of fries or tater tots, cole slaw and garlic toast, as well as a variety of specialty chicken sandwiches and a signature sauce. Customers can also choose a signature sweet and spicy seasoning blend.
Hot Box will also serve homemade southern sweet tea for $2, Red Bull for $3, along with traditional Pepsi products for $2.
Prices for a traditional "Hot Box" range from $8.50 to $13.50 and all sandwiches cost $7, with sides ranging from $0.50 to $2.49.
The opening of Hot Box came as a welcome surprise to many students who expressed dissatisfaction with the current chicken options.
“I’ve always felt that there were actually limited options on Court Street when it came to getting some chicken,” said Harrison Greathouse, a freshman studying sports management. “I’m excited to hear about this Hot Box place."
Julia Mafrici, a sophomore and a culinary worker, expressed appreciation for the opportunity to choose the spice level of your chicken.
“I feel like (spicy sauce) would be great on the side, but if it was on the chicken, maybe not because some people don’t like that flavoring,” Mafrici said.
Kevin McNamara and Denise McNamara, the owners of Hot Box, previously owned a chicken franchise in Cleveland before coming to Athens to open Hot Box.
“We learned how to do it the right way, the wrong way, all of those kinds of ways,” Kevin McNamara said. “Now we're doing it our own way, and the beauty of that is I can get as goofy with the marketing as I want to, and I can do as many different things on the menu as I want to.”
With this freedom, Kevin McNamara has made a point to decorate with old Ohio University concert posters and plans to release shirts and coupons via T-shirt cannon after breaks and during finals week.
“You can go to another corporate-owned place and they’ll have an OU pennant on the wall, but they’re doing that for window dressing to try to fool you into thinking that ‘hey, we’re part of the community’, but we’re going to be a part of the community.” Kevin McNamara said.
The couple’s goal is to use their profits to fund scholarships for five Athens County high schools.
Scholarships will provide "C students" opportunities to pursue college, trade school or any other post-secondary education of their choice.
“What I’m doing is I want to offer at least one scholarship per high school for whatever,” Kevin McNamara said. “I just want to do something to give people a leg up so that if they’re a little on the fence in high school about what they're going to do after they graduate, maybe this is that little nudge that makes them say ‘OK, you know what? I might as well give it a shot.”
After tasting the chicken at Hot Box, students, including Luke Cornell, a freshman studying sports management, said they were impressed by the quality and price.
“You get more food than Wings Over and you get it for the same price, if not cheaper, and you get more,” Cornell said. “I think it really just blows the other chicken places out of the water.”
Cornell said he urges others to give the restaurant a try.
“I think I will be here every weekend,” Cornell said. “I would recommend if you like Canes, you would love this place. This is the place to be”
