Foosackly's (stylized as foosackly's) is an American
chain
A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...
of
chicken restaurants in coastal Alabama and Northwest Florida.
Background
Foosackly's was co-founded by Will Fusaiotti and Eric Brechtel. The two attended
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...
together. Fusaiotti moved to Mobile with his family in 1995 to help his father open a
Smoothie King.
Fusaiotti and Brechtel had never fried a piece of chicken until the weekend before opening their first location on University Boulevard in Mobile in 2000.
The first location opened on April 28, 2000.
The restaurant has grown into a mini-chain in Alabama with 14 current operating locations in Mobile, Daphne,
Foley,
Saraland,
Semmes,
Auburn, and two in
Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only incorporated city, city in Escambia County, Florida, Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...
.
The chain opened its fourteenth location, in
Tuscaloosa, in 2020, and has plans to open further locations in Baldwin County and in Pensacola.
Fusaiotti has also considered opening restaurants in downtown Mobile,
Spanish Fort, and locations northward toward
Montgomery and
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
describing his philosophy of "It's not how many you open, it's how many you keep open."
All restaurants had to shut down their in-room dine-ins in mid-March 2020 to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Customers could still make their orders via drive-thru,
take-away
A take-out (US, Canada, Philippines) or takeaway (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) is a prepared meal or other food items purchased at a restaurant or fast food outlet with the intent to eat elsewhere. A concept found in many ancient cultures, take ...
or pick-up service. Dine-in service has since resumed.
Advertising
One of the company's advertising campaigns gained national and international attention in 2008 during the
U.S. Air Force's KC-135 aerial refueling tanker dispute between Boeing and a
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...
/
EADS
Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...
partnership.
Boeing protested the contract being awarded to Northrop Grumman/EADS, who would have built the tankers in Mobile. After this protest, Foosackly's placed billboards around the area stating "We would like to offer Boeing a finger." That advertising campaign saw bumper stickers featuring the slogan sold as far afield as California and France.
Almost four years later, following an announcement in July 2012 from Airbus (a subsidiary of EADS) that it planned to build its first North American aircraft assembly plant in Mobile, Foosackly's began using a new slogan that read "We'd like to offer Airbus a hand."
Credit card breach of 2018
In mid-2018, the company reported that all of its locations had been hacked and credit card data from over 165,000+ customers had been compromised. The attack took place from March 2018 through August 2018.
See also
*
List of fast-food chicken restaurants
*
Guthrie's
*
Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers
*
Zaxby's
References
External links
Foosackly's web siteFoosackly's Facebook Page
{{Establishments serving chicken
Restaurants in Alabama
Companies based in Mobile, Alabama
Fast-food poultry restaurants
Fast-food chains of the United States
Economy of the Southeastern United States
Regional restaurant chains in the United States
Fast casual restaurants
Restaurants established in 2000
2000 establishments in Alabama
Chicken chains of the United States