BALTIMORE — A rapidly-growing restaurant chain offering Nashville hot chicken plans to open four locations in the Baltimore area soon.
Crimson Coward is coming in early 2024 to Columbia, Pasadena, Owings Mills, and also just announced Eldersburg. The restaurant currently has locations in California, Texas, Virginia, and Michigan.
Crimson Coward offers fresh-not-frozen, pre-cut, hand-cut chicken, with everything cooked to order, plus homemade side items like mac 'n' cheese and coleslaw. They use tenderloin for their tenders, and offer chicken-breast sandwiches, as well as bone-in wings. The restaurants feature an open kitchen design, similar to Chipotle or Subway, because we "think it's really important for guests to see everything being prepared that they ordered," said John Filipiak, of Restaurant Management Group Mid-Atlantic, which is the area representative for Crimson Coward.
He said:
We're not really trying to be that fast-food concept. Our wait times are a little bit longer, but we are able to still produce a fresh-baked product for you, right in front of you as well... We're true Nashville, so we go from a country spice - which is more of a pepper side, it's like no spice. We have a mild, medium, hot, and then we go to 'Burn, Baby, Burn.' Even my employees, when they use the 'Burn, Baby, Burn,' they're putting their face mask on, because it gives you a lot of heat.
Because Crimson Coward uses 36 different ingredients in some of its spice mixes, "we think our flavors are true to the 'Nashville hot' that we promote ourselves as," he added.
The restaurant will be in the Boulevard Circle shopping center next to Stevenson University in Owings Mills; Deepage Drive off of Snowden River Parkway in Columbia; and Lakeshore Plaza shopping center on Mountain Road in Pasadena.
All locations are expected to open in late 2023 or early 2024.
Crimson Coward is ultimately looking to open 25 restaurants in Maryland and 25 in Virginia.
