A Southern-style fried chicken concept with roots in the Philadelphia area is setting up shop in South Whitehall Township, marking its first-ever Lehigh Valley location. Love & Honey Fried Chicken is developing a restaurant at 3024 W. Tilghman St., Suite 18, inside the Village West shopping center, in a storefront squeezed between My Salon Suite and Palm Beach Tan.
According to WFMZ.com, the new restaurant is under development at that address, with on-site workers confirming the build-out is underway in the soon-to-be-renovated space. Village West itself sits at Tilghman Street and Cedar Crest Boulevard in South Whitehall Township, and already counts Panera Bread, Shah's Halal Food, Ninja Ramen, LV Korean BBQ & Hot Pot and Sumo Japanese Fusion Restaurant among its dining tenants. No target opening date has been announced for the fried chicken spot, and a company representative has not returned messages seeking more information, per the same outlet.
A Menu Built Around Hand-Breaded Chicken
Love & Honey describes its chicken as hand-breaded and fried to order on its website, and the chain's menu features Southern-leaning fare. The chicken is vegetarian-fed and raised with no antibiotics, the company says. Signature sandwiches include the OG Fried Chicken, topped with ranch slaw, sweet pickles and ranch on a butter-toasted brioche bun, and the Nashville Fried Chicken, which dredges the chicken in hot chili oil before adding the same slaw, pickles and ranch.
Beyond sandwiches, the menu features buttermilk fried chicken tenders, wings sold in three-, six- or 12-piece orders, and drumsticks and thighs. A family meal option pairs double tenders with a choice of three drumsticks and three thighs or six wings, five sauces, four cornbread muffins with honey butter and a large order of tater tots. Sides include pimento cheese dip, Southern-style potato salad and bread and butter pickles, while dessert options run to banana pudding cups and Oreo-chocolate chip cookies.
From a 2015 Idea to a Growing Franchise
Love & Honey Fried Chicken was established in 2017 by Todd and Laura Lyons, who began working to open the business in 2015. Both received formal culinary training at the Culinary Institute of America. Todd Lyons started washing dishes at a country club at age 14 and went on to work as a chef for Aramark Corporation at Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field, as well as a senior research and development chef at Campbell Soup Company. Laura Lyons began working at a neighborhood restaurant at age 17 and later served as a chef and national director of food enthusiast programs at the Culinary Institute of America. She is now the company's co-founder and CEO, according to abc27.com.
The company has, per its business website, around a half dozen locations across Pennsylvania, New York and Rhode Island, with several more in the pipeline. Regional outposts operate in Newtown Township in Bucks County, Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, and Philadelphia. The Lyons first announced their decision to franchise the concept in February 2023, a move detailed by metrophiladelphia.com, which also reported the chain posted 20% sales growth for three consecutive years running into 2023.
Expansion Push Reaches Lehigh Valley and Beyond
Three franchises have now been awarded specifically in the Lehigh Valley, part of a broader wave that has seen more than 30 other franchises awarded elsewhere in the country. In 2026, the chain's franchising page lists new or coming-soon locations in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Alexandria and Princeton; a franchise has also been awarded in Washington, D.C., according to loveandhoneyfranchise.com. The company says it has launched a formal franchise program and is now accepting candidates, and it is actively recruiting operators in Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts and Florida.
That growth has already taken shape outside the Lehigh Valley. The brand's first franchise opened in Newtown, Bucks County, and its first Main Line store debuted in Bryn Mawr under a franchise deal that allows the operators to open up to three stores on the Main Line, per savvymainline.com. The company separately holds a 20-unit development agreement in Florida and previously said it aimed to open six new locations across Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, according to phillyvoice.com.
While South Whitehall shoppers wait for construction to wrap up, Love & Honey is already courting future regulars. Individuals can sign up to receive grand opening details and exclusive giveaways, and those who share contact information will be entered into a contest to win free chicken tenders for a year, structured as a $572 gift card equal to one order of tenders per week for 52 weeks. It's a fitting pitch for a chain whose tagline promises lots of love, little bit of honey.
