The Reynolds Team welcomes Zaxby’s restaurant to the neighborhood! Zaxby’s is a southern-comfort, fast-casual restaurant that specializes in mouth-watering fried chicken for hand-held consumption.

Since March we’ve been watching this new homey, brick, stone and vinyl siding building rise in the Eastgate Shopping Center in the eastern side of Tall Cedars Parkway next to Rt. 50.  Now you can’t miss it—just look for the roof’s huge, smiling white chicken with a red head and yellow beak.

Inside you’ll find booths as well as tables in a warm décor with dark wood panel and shades of gray. Its 3,500 sq ft can seat 70 people. However, if “fast-casual” is not fast enough for you, they have a drive-through window too.

“We are very excited to finally bring the Zaxby’s brand and future locations to Chantilly and Loudoun County,” said licensee Duran Lawson, who owns this location with his wife Felipa Lawson and business partner Andre Roberts. “Serving our fresh chicken fingers, buffalo wings and Zalads to Loudoun County is something we have been working toward for several years.”

Zaxby’s offers easy-to-eat chicken in the favorite forms: fingers (aka tenders), wings, sandwiches and salads. The fingers come in crispy regular or buffalo-style spicy; and wings either boneless or traditional. Among the eight different sandwiches, stand-outs include a grilled chicken version; a Cajun Club with blackened grilled chicken; and a Kickin’ Chicken sandwich containing three chicken fingers, ranch sauce and spicy Tongue Torch sauce.

Such sauces are a Zaxby’s distinctive. Their ten dipping sauces are rated by heat level measured in chili peppers, and they range from the zero-pepper Barbecue up to the five-pepper “Insane” sauce.

Naturally, I had to try “Insane,” wondering whether it was for the insane or created to make you insane. I was only in the emergency room for a half hour. Just kidding! It’s hot but completely safe, at least for adults.

This is not factory food; the fingers are fried in house with hand-dipped batter. Here’s another Zaxby’s treat that you won’t find elsewhere in fast-casual dining: store-made, hand-cut, thick potato chips.

Doing things the good old-fashioned way doesn’t mean ignoring modern advances: The store is lit by eco-friendly LED lighting, Coca-Cola Freestyle machines provide a wide variety of flavored soft drinks, and you can order online at Zaxbys.com or via the Zaxby’s phone app.

Zaxby’s can also cater your business or community event or house party. Just click the Catering link on the Zaxby’s website.

Friends since childhood, Zach McLeroy and Tony Townley dreamed up Zaxby’s while playing one-on-one basketball at Zach’s house one afternoon. They opened their first store in Statesboro, Georgia, in 1990. They must have been doing something right, because more than 900 stores now dot the USA in all the southern states and reach as far as Utah and Indiana.

The 411:

Zaxby’s
43820 Eastgate Shoppes Dr.
Chantilly, VA 20152
571-349-3350

Hours:
Mon-Sun 10:30 am – 10:00 pm
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What’s Cookin’? w/The Reynolds Team | 703-297-4251 | RTRSells.com