Super Popular Nashville Hot Chicken Chain Hattie B’s Is Opening in Austin in Old Maria’s Taco Xpress Location

Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, the popular Nashville-based hot chicken restaurant chain, is looking to open in Texas, as pointed out by an Eater tipster. The first Austin location will be at 2529 South Lamar Boulevard, the former Maria’s Taco Xpress address in the South Lamar neighborhood, as reported by Austin Business Journal, starting sometime in February 2024.

The restaurant chain is known for its fiery, crispy hot chicken, as well as chicken tender and chicken wing platters, and hot chicken sandwiches. Spice levels range from the Southern (no spice) to the Shut the Cluck Up (the spiciest). Then there are Southern sides (baked beans, black-eyed pea salads, etc.), desserts (cobbler, banana pudding), drinks, and beer.

The Austin location will include more cocktails such as boozy slushees and draft cocktails, similar to its Dallas and Atlanta restaurants. The physical space will include indoor and outdoor areas.

Hattie’s opened a location in Dallas in 2022 and selected a Houston address in December 2021. A rep for the chain confirmed these expansion plans back in August 2020, noting that Hattie B’s formed a specific Texas LLC (Hattie B’s of Texas, LLC) that month in Dallas.

Maria’s opened as a food trailer in 1997 by Maria Corbalan, who then turned it into a physical restaurant in 2006. There had been talks about selling the property for some time, which finally happened in September 2020. Since the December 2020 shutter, there had been a food truck of the same name operating at the same address, as ABJ reported. It relocated to 1210 Barton Springs Road in 2021.

These Hattie B’s Texas expansions have been in the works for a while. Director of culinary operations Brian Morris first brought it up to the Los Angeles Times in 2018, and co-owner Nick Bishop Jr. mentioned it to the Nashville Business Journal in May 2020. The restaurant served at Austin Food & Wine Festival in November 2023.

Bishop Jr. and his father Nick Bishop, Sr. opened the business in Nashville in 2012, and grew with locations throughout the Tennessee City and Memphis, as well as ones in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Las Vegas.

Austin hot chicken restaurants currently include Tumble 22 and Hawt Chicken.

Rendering: Hattie B’s

Update, November 8, 2023: This article, originally published on August 26, 2020, has been updated to include Hattie’s Austin address, the opening of the Dallas location, the address of the Houston location, new photos and renderings of the Austin location, and further projected opening date.