PEABODY — Big Chicken, a fast-food chain co-founded in 2018 by Hall of Fame basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, opened at the North Shore Mall on Wednesday.
The restaurant’s menu features a variety of fried-chicken sandwiches and milkshakes. The Peabody location is the chain’s 45th store and the first in Massachusetts, Big Chicken Head of Training Trisha Bovell said.
Bovell said she was the second person hired at Big Chicken and flew in from Las Vegas at 1 a.m. for the grand opening.
“Being able to bring big food and big flavor and big fun to the Northeast is really exciting,” she said.
The first 36 customers in line for the grand opening received a gift card giving them $10 of food each week for a year.
The grand openings typically offer this promotion for the first 34 customers to honor O’Neal’s career jersey, but Bovell said they had to make an exception for this location because of O’Neal’s jersey number when he played for the Boston Celtics, which was 36.
Shawn Langlois, of Salem, N.H., was the first customer in line. He said he arrived at Big Chicken at 9 p.m. on Tuesday to camp out for the grand opening and only slept for around an hour in his car.
He said he was most looking forward to trying the chicken tenders and a milkshake, and returning throughout the year to use the gift card.
Colby LaGrassa said he showed up Tuesday night, saw Langlois alone, and decided it would be OK to head home for the night.
LaGrassa said he came back to the line around 3 a.m. and saw Langlois “toughing it out like a trooper,” and joined him in “trying to beat the heat.”
When the doors finally opened just after 10:30 a.m., LaGrassa and Johnny Thompson, who said he arrived at 7 a.m. and was the third person in line, sat down together to eat their meals.
LaGrassa ordered a Shaq Attack chicken sandwich, a caramel milkshake, and French fries.
“It’s awesome. Everyone, everyone should try this,” he said.
It was “100%, 1,000%” worth the wait,” he added.
Thompson ordered the Ultimate chicken sandwich, a peanut-butter milkshake, and French fries.
“This is hands-down the best sandwich I had all summer,” he said. “I think I would have been here at 10:30 (p.m.) if I knew what it was.”
Three high-school friends, Ben Robert, Aidan Martyn, and Weston Puleo, arrived in line at 7 a.m. and were the fourth, fifth, and sixth in line for the grand opening.
They said they plan on coming back every week to use their promotional passes.
Martyn said he and Puleo drove to Robert’s house and knocked on his window to wake him up to get in line.
Robert said the first thing he ordered was a “really refreshing” water after waiting in the heat since 7 a.m. He also ordered a cookies-and-cream milkshake and a strawberry-watermelon juice.
North Shore Mall General Manager Scott DeCost said having the first Big Chicken in Massachusetts is “something that we feel pretty good about bragging about.”
“It’s a great addition for us. It’s got a lot of buzz to it and there’s a lot of anticipation for their offerings,” DeCost said. “It’s actually quite exciting to have this type of energy behind it.”
Franchise owners Paul Bains and Ryan Corcoran were at the grand opening and said they share ownership with Kyle Seyboth.
Bains said after flying out to Ohio to try Big Chicken at another location, they “were both sold immediately” and wanted to own a franchise location.
Corcoran said their partnership was looking for a company with great food, a “vision to deliver on that food,” and corporate support to help franchise owners.
“We were really impressed with Big Chicken’s leadership,” he said. “But honestly, it’s been the food.”
They said opening the restaurant was made possible with support from the city and the mall’s management, as well as the corporate support from Big Chicken.
“Anytime that we open up a new business, it brings in new job opportunities, new tax revenues, and overall it’s good for the city,” Peabody Area Chamber of Commerce President Deanne Healey said.
