A bright orange shipping container stuffed with cheeseburger sliders is set to open October 22 at 4634 Gallia St. in New Boston, Ohio, right next door to a Guthrie's Chicken location the same family opened earlier this year. It will be Smalls Sliders' second restaurant in the state, following the brand's Ohio debut in South Point this past summer, and it comes wrapped inside a much bigger regional bet: a signed agreement for more than five locations across the Tri-State area.
A Gallia Street Food Cluster Takes Shape
The New Boston opening was announced through a company press release, according to QSR Web, which reported that the development is led by brothers Beckett and Sam Gue and will sit immediately beside the Guthrie's Chicken spot at 4642 Gallia St. that the Gue family opened in February 2026, according to the Scioto Post. The two concepts sit under the family's local management entity, Tri-State Guthries, LLC, which operates several Guthrie's Chicken locations in the area, per the same QSR Web report. Guthrie's Chicken itself traces back to 1982 in Haleyville, Alabama, where it pioneered the chicken-finger-only fast-food menu, the Scioto Post notes.
The New Boston Can follows closely on the heels of the brand's first Ohio location. Smalls Sliders made its official entry into the state on July 21, 2026, when the Gue brothers opened the state's very first Can at 39 Township Road 1429 E. in nearby South Point, as detailed by Franchising.com. South Point served as the brand's initial foothold in the Tri-State region bordering West Virginia and Kentucky before the expansion pushed north to New Boston.
From Superintendent's Office to Burger Counter
The brothers bring unusual résumés to the fast-food business. Sam Gue served as District Superintendent for the South Point Local School District for more than two decades before stepping into full-time restaurant operations, according to the Ironton Tribune. Beckett Gue, meanwhile, previously owned GoFan, a digital ticketing platform for high school athletics, and previously owned multiple Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers locations before expanding into food franchising, QSR Magazine reports. QSR Web describes the pair as bringing experience across the automotive, fast-casual and quick-service restaurant industries to the New Boston project.
At the restaurant itself, the menu sticks to the brand's established formula: cheeseburger sliders, seasoned waffle fries and milkshakes, served out of a 750-square-foot Smorange-colored shipping container, per QSR Web. The modular containers are prefabricated off-site and simply dropped onto properties, functioning with drive-thrus and walk-up windows and skipping indoor dining rooms entirely, according to the QSR Research Hub. That stripped-down format lets franchisees open on smaller parcels of land with a streamlined operational footprint.
A Five-Unit Deal With More Cans to Come
Beyond the New Boston opening, Smalls Sliders has a multi-unit development agreement in place for more than five locations across the region, QSR Web reported. It is not yet clear where those remaining sites will land or when construction might begin, leaving the pace of the Tri-State rollout an open question for now.
The New Boston deal is part of a much larger national surge for the brand. Smalls Sliders was launched in 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux founder Brandon Landry, with financial backing from former NFL quarterback Drew Brees and private equity firm 10 Point Capital. The company brought on former Tropical Smoothie Cafe chief executive Charles Watson as CEO in April 2025 to lead its nationwide franchise push, after Watson had grown that previous chain from a regional player to more than 1,500 locations, according to Nation's Restaurant News. As of late 2025, the chain had a combined total of 375 Cans open or in development across 30 states, up from just 11 open units at the end of 2023, per Franchising.com.
Smalls Sliders has been dropping its orange containers across the country throughout 2026, including a first Knoxville location and a multi-unit push into the Oklahoma City market. The chain has also weathered setbacks, including a fire that shuttered a Texas location in Willis earlier this year. Locally, the brand has leaned on its Smalls Town Hero community program at grand openings; during the South Point launch, the Gue brothers presented an award honoring Greg Elmore, a 28-year local Walmart greeter, Franchising.com reported.
