Southern-style concept leverages enhanced branding that celebrates vision and thoughtful leadership in preparation for growth
Roots Chicken Shak – home of James Beard-nominated Chef Tiffany Derry’s duck-fat fried chicken – recently announced its mission-driven model designed to empower and create equitable opportunity for underrepresented communities.
After bonding over their shared passion for driving social change and creating opportunities for women and minorities, Roots Chicken Shak Co-Founders Derry and Tom Foley joined forces to create T2D Concepts, a purpose-driven hospitality group that aims to bridge the gender and racial wealth gap in the restaurant industry. With its priority of building business ownership opportunities for women and people of color, alongside its chef-driven quality menu, Roots Chicken Shak presents a scalable restaurant model – with impact.
The Southern-style concept’s social entrepreneurial approach enables members of historically marginalized communities to overcome the financial barriers typically faced when exploring franchise opportunities.
As Roots Chicken Shak targets future growth, Tom and Tiffany partnered with Harrison, a Dallas-based global design consulting firm, to develop the brand strategy and positioning to help achieve its mission. Harrison developed enhanced branding that celebrates Roots Chicken Shak’s founding conviction of passion, principle, purpose and profit – in that order.
“To create opportunity in communities that have systemically been marginalized demands cooperative efforts and the leadership team at Harrison, led by Keith Anderson (COO), Sarah Jenkinson (Design Director) and Rachael Armstrong (Sr. Strategic Lead) has truly stepped up,” Foley said. “Having Harrison’s expertise and knowledge in the hospitality industry, and its over 30 years of creating commercially successful local and global brands, will help catalyze our efforts. We are excited for the next step.”
Roots Chicken Shak is the home of Chef Tiffany Derry’s famous duck-fat fried chicken. The streamlined menu was inspired by Tiffany’s Southern upbringing and utilizes locally sourced, fresh ingredients prepared with proprietary methods and spices. Here, duck-fat fried chicken is served in many forms – from wings and tenders to The Big Bird (a fried chicken sandwich with a sweet potato bun, seasonal kale, salad, pickles tomatoes, red onion, herb mayo) and atop salads. In order to drive economic opportunity for all, Co-Founders Chef Tiffany Derry and Tom Foley, Esq. ensure everyone is invited to the table and has equal opportunity to thrive. Grounded in strategic business analysis, the pair is developing an innovative operations and strategic funding model that will expand the Roots Chicken Shak footprint, deliver consistent chef-driven food, and provide incentives and opportunities for historically under resourced community members operate their own franchise. With an efficient footprint, streamlined menu, and elimination of food waste, Roots presents a scalable restaurant concept that creates a great dining experience and drives social justice.
