Flock and Fresh is the newest restaurant idea from Wan Kim, a Korean businessman and the CEO of Dallas-based Smoothie King.
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Flock and Fresh opens May 2, 2026 in Dallas. More than another place for chicken tenders in a fast-moving city, Flock and Fresh might become the next Dallas-born replicable restaurant, its founder said.
“I really don’t think there’s a concept like ours,” he said. It’s a bold statement for a restaurant that hasn’t even opened yet. But this founder is Wan Kim, the CEO of Coppell-based Smoothie King and a confident leader in the food industry. When he couldn’t find a steakhouse in Dallas he loved enough to visit regularly, he opened his own in 2024. Nuri Steakhouse remains one of the most expensive restaurant buildouts in Dallas history, with a price tag at about $20 million.
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For his next act? Chicken. It’s an order-at-the-counter shop in a humble storefront on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue.
Chicken tenders at Flock and Fresh come with options of sides like kale salad and house-made chips. Kale? That’s not common at competing quick-service chicken restaurants.
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Why chicken, and why now?
Kim believes chicken is “the most important ingredient in 2026.”
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“I think chicken is the best protein in this world,” he said in a Dallas Morning News interview 10 days before Flock and Fresh’s opening. “I really think the world needs a different chicken place where choices matter. I think it has to be a little healthier.”
Flock and Fresh sells salads with the option of fried or grilled chicken on top. The first Flock and Fresh opens on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue in May 2026.
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Flock and Fresh’s “thing” is that its chicken contains no antibiotics or hormones, and it is never frozen. The chicken is brined for 24 hours, which Kim believes gives it deeper flavor and differentiates the budding company from a flock of competitors.
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But brining chicken for one day could be a risk if Flock and Fresh grows to more locations.
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“If we run out of chicken because it takes 24 hours to brine, we have to close our store,” Kim admitted. The taste of the chicken was nonnegotiable, however: “It’s a night-and-day difference,” he said.
He added: “It was very important to us that the quality needs to be first.”
What to eat at Flock and Fresh
Flock and Fresh could be a competitor to Chick-fil-A, Raising Cane’s and other big brands, its founder said. It’s not affiliated with Smoothie King; its founder is opening Flock and Fresh separately.
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In the years following the pandemic, consumers felt compelled to exercise and keep their minds healthy, Kim said, but the anxiety around how to do so has never been higher. The company was created as a post-COVID “answer,” Kim explained.
At Flock and Fresh, customers choose whether to order grilled or fried chicken tenders, and whether to have them in a salad or a sandwich. The throughline, Kim said, is the chicken is already antibiotic- and hormone-free. No decision-making is needed there.
The menu offers signals: The “Not So Guilty” Pleasure is a grilled chicken sandwich with bacon jam. The Triple Flock, $12, is three tenders with a kale salad and potato chips fried in-house.
Flock and Fresh is designed with “soft” colors like pink, orange and green, said founder Wan Kim. He points to more “masculine” designs at Raising Cane’s and Wingstop to illustrate how he believes Flock and Fresh looks different.
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Chicken competition
It’s Kim’s first chicken restaurant, and he isn’t sure yet whether it’s franchisable. But he already has plans for expansion.
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First up are “a few more stores” in the Dallas area to test the model, he said. Locations were not disclosed.
Sauce options at Flock and Fresh include barbecue, honey mustard, Japanese ranch, curry ranch, Cajun Buffalo and sweet Korean.
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If the company does grow to “the size of Raising Cane’s or Chick-fil-A,” as Kim stated, the company would need a strategy to be sure Flock and Fresh could source enough quality chicken.
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But even up to 100 restaurants, he said, ” we should be able to.”
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Flock and Fresh is at 5500 Greenville Ave., Suite 205 (near Lovers Lane, in the Old Town Shopping Center), Dallas. It’s expected to open for lunch and dinner starting May 2, 2026.