{"id":135091,"date":"2026-02-16T13:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/135091\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:32:06","slug":"wonder-acquires-nyc-fast-casual-blue-ribbon-fried-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/135091\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonder acquires NYC fast casual Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

The basics:<\/p>\n

Wonder<\/a> acquires NYC fast casual Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken<\/a>
\nBrand to expand across Wonder\u2019s 90-plus Northeast locations
\nEast Village restaurant to remain open, operate as usual
\nDeal marks Wonder\u2019s seventh acquisition since 2018<\/p>\n

Rapidly growing food hall<\/a> chain Wonder completed its second acquisition of 2026.\n<\/p>\n

The company announced the purchase of popular New York City-based fast casual Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken in a Feb. 10 press release<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

The transaction gives Wonder full ownership of the brand, its single location in Manhattan and the employees who work there. The East Village outpost will continue operating as usual as well as remain available on third-party delivery platforms, according to the announcement.<\/p>\n

Wonder will also add\u00a0Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken as a concept in one of its New York City food halls this year. After that, it will expand the brand to Wonder\u2019s growing footprint of 90-plus locations across the Northeast.\n<\/p>\n

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.\n<\/p>\n

\u2018Great foods,\u2019 more accessible<\/p>\n

Chef-brothers Eric and Bruce Bromberg launched Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken<\/a> in 2013. It features fried chicken, wings, smashburgers, salads and chicken tenders on hot dog buns. Sides include street corn, fries, coleslaw, mac & cheese and buttermilk biscuits.<\/p>\n

After training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, the brothers went on to found the Blue Ribbon Restaurants group i<\/a>n New York City 34 years ago. They have since built the brand into a nationally recognized hospitality group known for brasseries, sushi bars and casual-friendly spots.\n<\/p>\n

Wonder founder and CEO Marc Lore believes Blue Ribbon Chicken\u2019s identity as \u201ca fast-casual restaurant with fine-dining roots\u201d makes it a natural fit for his company\u2019s existing portfolio.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken into Wonder is an exciting step forward. With an incredibly loyal following already in place, we can now scale this iconic brand across the Wonder platform to reach far more people,\u201d Lore said.\n<\/p>\n

Unlike Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken, Wonder created its other restaurant brands in-house or they are existing concepts licensed to Wonder. Lore feels adding the banner into the fold \u201creflects the company\u2019s broader strategy to own and steward beloved restaurant brands that align with its mission to make great foods more accessible.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Bruce Bromberg shared, \u201cWe started Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken with the aim to share one of our childhood favorites with the world and we\u2019re incredible proud of what we\u2019ve built.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited about this next chapter in Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken\u2019s journey and are confident in Wonder\u2019s ability to bring what makes this brand so special to more customers than ever before,\u201d the Blue Ribbon Restaurants co-founder went on.\n<\/p>\n

Order up!<\/p>\n

At Wonder, Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken joins options such as:\n<\/p>\n

Streetbird by Marcus Samuelsson
\nThe Mainstay by Marc Murphy
\nWalnut Lane by Jonathan Waxman
\nChios Taverna by Michael Symon
\nFred\u2019s Meat & Bread
\nDi Fara Pizza
\nJota by Jose Andres
\nBobby Flay Steak<\/p>\n

Wonder recently began rolling out two new concepts that offer salad and bowl meals<\/a> for $10 or less at 16 locations in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.\n<\/p>\n

Customers can mix-and-match menu items from a collection of nearly two dozen acclaimed chefs and eateries in a single order at Wonder\u2019s roughly 90 locations. Everything is then made-to-order for delivery, pickup or limited dining in.
\n\"Wonder\"WonderWonder opened a new location in Toms River in August 2025. \u2013 PROVIDED BY WONDER\n<\/p>\n

Within New Jersey, Wonder has 26 spots. It expects to bring its next three sites (Wayne, Ocean Township and Emerson) online this spring.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken marks Wonder\u2019s seventh acquisition overall since its 2018 founding. It comes less than a month after the platform purchased restaurant rewards app Claim.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Other key acquisitions have included: meal kit provider Blue Apron for $103 million,<\/a> on-demand delivery platform Grubhub for $650 million<\/a> and Sweetgreen\u2019s automated kitchen technology business Spyce for $186.4 million.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

To support its goal to hit 1,000 outposts by 2029, Wonder has raised more than $2 billion so far. The startup\u2019s headquarters is in New York City but it maintains an R&D facility in Parsippany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article The basics: Wonder acquires NYC fast casual Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken Brand to expand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,57400,31188,11627,57401,9,24,63,57402,57403],"class_list":{"0":"post-135091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-fast-casual","12":"tag-food-hall","13":"tag-fried-chicken","14":"tag-new-jersey-expansion","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-restaurant-acquisition","19":"tag-wonder"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}