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Flock and Fresh is the newest restaurant idea from Wan Kim, a Korean businessman and the CEO of Dallas-based Smoothie King.\u00a0<\/p>\n
White Unicorn Agency<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI really don\u2019t think there\u2019s a concept like ours,\u201d he said. It\u2019s a bold statement for a restaurant that hasn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n For his next act? Chicken. It\u2019s an order-at-the-counter shop in a humble storefront on Dallas\u2019 Greenville Avenue.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n White Unicorn Agency<\/p>\n Why chicken, and why now?\u00a0<\/p>\n Kim believes chicken is \u201cthe most important ingredient in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI think chicken is the best protein in this world,\u201d he said in a Dallas Morning News interview 10 days before Flock and Fresh’s opening. \u201cI really think the world needs a different chicken place where choices matter. I think it has to be a little healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n White Unicorn Agency<\/p>\n Flock and Fresh\u2019s \u201cthing\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n But brining chicken for one day could be a risk if Flock and Fresh grows to more locations.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIf we run out of chicken because it takes 24 hours to brine, we have to close our store,\u201d Kim admitted. The taste of the chicken was nonnegotiable, however: \u201cIt\u2019s a night-and-day difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cIt was very important to us that the quality needs to be first.\u201d<\/p>\n What to eat at Flock and Fresh<\/p>\n Flock and Fresh could be a competitor to Chick-fil-A, Raising Cane\u2019s and other big brands, its founder said. It\u2019s not affiliated with Smoothie King; its founder is opening Flock and Fresh separately.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 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 \u201canswer,\u201d Kim explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The menu offers signals: The \u201cNot So Guilty\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s and Wingstop to illustrate how he believes Flock and Fresh looks different.\u00a0<\/p>\n White Unicorn Agency<\/p>\n Chicken competition<\/p>\n It\u2019s Kim\u2019s first chicken restaurant, and he isn\u2019t sure yet whether it\u2019s franchisable. But he already has plans for expansion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n First up are \u201ca few more stores\u201d in the Dallas area to test the model, he said. Locations were not disclosed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sauce options at Flock and Fresh include barbecue, honey mustard, Japanese ranch, curry ranch, Cajun Buffalo and sweet Korean.<\/p>\n White Unicorn Agency<\/p>\n If the company does grow to \u201cthe size of Raising Cane\u2019s or Chick-fil-A,\u201d as Kim stated, the company would need a strategy to be sure Flock and Fresh could source enough quality chicken.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n But even up to 100 restaurants, he said, ” we should be able to.”<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Flock and Fresh is at 5500 Greenville Ave., Suite 205 (near Lovers Lane, in the Old Town Shopping Center), Dallas. It\u2019s expected to open for lunch and dinner starting May 2, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flock and Fresh is the newest restaurant idea from Wan Kim, a Korean businessman and the CEO of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,89729,92725,97535,89276,89307,91833],"class_list":{"0":"post-260472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news","11":"tag-tp-east-dallas","12":"tag-tp-lake-highlands","13":"tag-tp-raising-canes-chicken-fingers","14":"tag-tp-restaurant-openings","15":"tag-tp-restaurants","16":"tag-tp-sandwiches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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