Rock Hill is getting its own outpost of the fast-growing chicken tender chain Huey Magoo's, with a restaurant slated to open by spring 2027 as the debut location in a six-store deal spanning Rock Hill, Fort Mill and Columbia. The franchise group behind the project includes two childhood friends and Marine Corps veterans who say Rock Hill was their first choice for the brand's first restaurant in the area.
Franchisees Grant McDowell and Jeremy Press, who attended middle school and high school together before both serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, partnered to develop the six Huey Magoo's locations, according to The Post and Courier. Press said the group considered a number of brands while searching for a franchise before landing on Huey Magoo's, and he said he and McDowell were impressed by the company's corporate leadership team and its quality standards. The pair tried the Greenville location together, and Press said all three partners loved it.
McDowell told the paper that Rock Hill is ideally located in Charlotte Hornets and Carolina Panthers territory, a pitch that lines up with the city's broader momentum. Rock Hill is South Carolina's fifth-most populous city, with an estimated 2026 population topping 76,000 residents, and it landed at #5 on U.S. News & World Report's 2025-2026 list of Best Places to Live in South Carolina. The city sits within the Charlotte metro sphere and its job market is projected to grow 7% thanks to manufacturing and technology investment, per that same ranking.
A Franchise Team With Deep Local Ties
Rounding out the ownership group is Jason Twitty, who brings more than 20 years of retail and food service experience and will serve as operating partner. Press regularly attends youth fastpitch softball tournaments in York County, a detail that speaks to the group's local roots even as they build out a multi-state franchise footprint. The group's plans extend beyond Rock Hill: Huey Magoo's also intends to open a location near the University of South Carolina in Columbia as part of the same six-store push into Rock Hill, Fort Mill and Columbia.
Huey Magoo's is a fast-casual chicken-tender brand founded in Florida in 2004, and the chain's menu centers on signature chicken tenders and tender bites, hand-breaded or grilled with a secret seasoning blend, along with sauces, sides, sandwiches, wraps and salads. The brand's tagline, “The Filet Mignon of Chicken,” refers to its exclusive use of chicken tenderloins — a cut that makes up roughly 3% of a chicken's total meat — which are marinated for 24 hours before cooking, according to PR Newswire.
From Wingstop Leadership to National Expansion
The chain's rapid growth traces back to 2016, when former Wingstop executive vice president Andy Howard acquired a majority stake in Huey Magoo's alongside other former Wingstop leaders. Howard brought more than 35 years of chicken industry experience from brands including Kenny Rogers Roasters and Ranch One, as reported by Nation's Restaurant News. Since then, the chain has scaled aggressively, including through a new 1,850-square-foot drive-thru prototype introduced in May 2026 that cuts buildout costs by 40% and allows development on half-acre parcels while still fitting 37 indoor seats and 18 patio seats.
Huey Magoo's opened its 89th restaurant in Aiken in May 2026 and expects to reach 100 open locations nationwide by the end of the year, with more than 200 additional restaurants in development, according to Reston Patch. The chain had roughly 66 locations in mid-2024 before its expansion accelerated across 13 states. In South Carolina specifically, the brand first arrived in July 2022 with a Greenville location led by franchisees Bo and John Knapp under a 12-unit regional deal, then expanded to Greenwood in November 2024 and Aiken this past May — building the statewide track record that preceded the Rock Hill announcement.
What It Takes To Open One
Multi-unit franchisee groups like McDowell and Press's face steep financial thresholds to get into the Huey Magoo's system. An initial franchise fee of $35,000 comes alongside required financial qualifications of $500,000 in liquid capital and $750,000 in net worth per developed location, plus an ongoing 5% royalty fee and 2% marketing fee, per 1851 Franchise. The brand has also leaned into value pricing this year, rolling out a $9.99 individual Tender Bites meal and a $29.99 Family Four Pack over the summer, building on its late-2025 launch of Grilled Tender Bites.
The chain has picked up national attention alongside its growth. In July, Huey Magoo's ranked No. 4 in USA TODAY's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards for Best Fast Food Fried Chicken and landed a spot on Fast Casual's 2026 Top Movers & Shakers list. That recognition comes as Huey Magoo's competes in an increasingly crowded fast-casual chicken tender market against franchised rivals like Layne's Chicken Fingers and corporate giants like Raising Cane's, which surpassed 1,000 locations in 2026.
Whether the Rock Hill group can hit its ambitious timeline — six stores across three cities starting with the Rock Hill debut in spring 2027 — remains to be seen. But for McDowell and Press, the pitch was as much personal as it was financial: two Marine veterans and old schoolmates betting on a chicken tender chain they first fell for over a plate of tenders in Greenville.
