Entrepreneur
Key Takeaways
- From selling his house to moving back to Chicago, Joe Fontana bet everything on hot chicken.
- While most restaurants abandoned it decades ago, Fontana doubled down on frying exclusively in beef tallow.
- From viral fryer videos to family photos on the walls, he shows how narrative can turn a restaurant into a movement.
Joe Fontana had barely opened the doors of Fry the Coop when he sat down with his mother-in-law over a glass of wine.
That’s when she dropped the kind of line only family can deliver. “After the restaurant fails and closes, what are you going to do?” Fontana recalls, laughing.
The restaurant owner‘s answer was stubborn and fearless: “There is no plan B here. It’s either kill or be killed.”
That belief had been brewing for years. Fontana once held a steady office job in California, but the cubicle life made him miserable. “I wanted to do something that I loved,” he says. For him, that love was food.
Related: People Line Up Down the Block to Try This Iconic NYC Pizza. Now, It Could Be Coming to Your City.
He found a mentor in San Marcos, spending weekends learning the business side of cooking and running a food cart at the Oceanside night market.
That grind led to his first concept, Meatball Republic. He raised $25,000 on Kickstarter and built a following through pop-ups, but the restaurant never opened. The lessons stayed with him.
The turning point came when Fontana tried a Nashville hot chicken sandwich at the Crack Shack in San Diego. “I was obsessed with the flavor of this Nashville hot chicken,” he says. The obsession led to a seven-page business plan and a late-night call to a friend: “This is a hit. We gotta hit on our hands.”
Convincing his wife meant another leap. “Do you want to sell our first house that we just bought, move back to Chicago, where the winters are -14 degrees, and open a restaurant?” he asked. Chicago was home, and it was also where he believed Nashville hot chicken could take off. A friend had a vacant space, and Fontana saw the chance to build not just a job, but a scalable brand.
His wife agreed, and in 2017, Fry the Coop opened its first location in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Sales were painfully slow. Desperate, Fontana bought a chicken costume and stood outside waving cars down. “Please come on in,” he laughs.
Today, Fry the Coop has grown to 10 locations across Chicago. Fontana has gone from night markets to features in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and USA Today. His food — and his story — now reach millions through media and viral posts. The grind has turned into momentum, and the risks are paying off.
Related: This Former ‘Simpsons’ Showrunner Sampled 200 Foods in 24 Hours — Then Came Back For More
Powered by beef tallow
Fontana spends an extra $300,000 a year on one ingredient: beef tallow. Most restaurants ditched it decades ago, but Fry the Coop has used it from day one. “We’re all in,” he says. “It tastes better, it’s better for you, and it’s just a better way to eat.”
The decision came early. A chef suggested blanching fries in beef tallow, and around the same time, Fontana listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History episode “McDonald’s Broke My Heart”. It told the story of how fast-food giants abandoned beef tallow in the 1990s under pressure and swapped to cheaper vegetable oils. “People have been cooking with animal fats since the beginning of time,” Fontana says. “When I heard that, it just clicked — why wouldn’t we go back to the original way?”
From day one, Fry the Coop fried with beef tallow. Customers noticed. “People always say this is the best chicken sandwich they’ve ever had,” Fontana says. “And I tell them, don’t say anything, but it’s the beef tallow.”
What started as an inside secret eventually became a headline. As beef tallow returned to the spotlight, Fontana avoided the politics but seized the moment. His publicist encouraged him to post a behind-the-scenes fryer video, which went viral and now has more than 34.1 million views. A follow-up hit millions as well.
“It started with taste,” he says. “Now it’s become part of our identity.” For Fontana, the lesson is the same as when he was hustling food carts and waving down cars in a chicken suit: ignore the doubters, trust your instincts, and lean into what makes you different. That belief — no Plan B — has carried Fry the Coop from risky bet to lasting brand.
Related: He Turned Failure Into a Massive Food Truck and Restaurant Operation. Here’s How.
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Key Takeaways
- From selling his house to moving back to Chicago, Joe Fontana bet everything on hot chicken.
- While most restaurants abandoned it decades ago, Fontana doubled down on frying exclusively in beef tallow.
- From viral fryer videos to family photos on the walls, he shows how narrative can turn a restaurant into a movement.
Joe Fontana had barely opened the doors of Fry the Coop when he sat down with his mother-in-law over a glass of wine.
That’s when she dropped the kind of line only family can deliver. “After the restaurant fails and closes, what are you going to do?” Fontana recalls, laughing.
The restaurant owner‘s answer was stubborn and fearless: “There is no plan B here. It’s either kill or be killed.”
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