Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, a popular Southern comfort food restaurant chain, celebrates the grand opening of its first San Diego County restaurant on Saturday, April 13, in the Rolando area.
In its 2023 picks for the best biscuits in America, Food & Wine magazine ranked Rise’s “huge, flaky biscuits” No. 6 in the U.S. And in 2022, the trade magazine Fast Casual ranked Rise No. 22 on its list of the Top 100 Movers & Shakers in the quick-service restaurant industry.
Launched by chef Tom Ferguson in 2012 as a small single storefront in Durham, N.C., Rise started out selling just biscuits, doughnut and coffee. In the years since, the menu has expanded to include fried chicken sandwiches, biscuit breakfast sandwiches, breakfast meals, tots, grits, fries, beignets, cinnamon roll-style biscuits.
The Righteous Chicken biscuit at Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, which has opened its first San Diego location in the Rolando area.
(Courtesy of Rise)
Before the pandemic, Rise introduced a new contactless service model that made it unique in the fast casual industry. Customers can pre-order their biscuits and breakfast sandwiches, and when they or a third-party delivery service worker arrives in the store, they type the name on their order on a kiosk screen which opens a microwave-style warming locker to retrieve their food.
The service model was developed to reduce labor expenses and ensure food freshness, but when the pandemic hit, it was ideally suited to the contactless service that COVID-19 required. As a result, sales rose by 50 percent in 2020 and profits rose by 30 percent, according to Fast Casual magazine.
Rise has 22 locations nationwide, with four more poised to open this year. The first California location opened in Thousand Oaks in 2022. Rise restaurants are also located in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The new San Diego location is owned by Jason Kasid. It will be the first of many Rise restaurants planned for the San Diego area.
The Righteous Chicken Club Sandwich at Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, which recently opened its first San Diego location.
(Courtesy of Rise)
In celebration of the grand opening on Saturday, Rise will donate 10 percent of sales that day to nearby Clay Elementary School, give a limited-edition sticker to the first 200 customers, and hold a number of drawings for free Rise food items and one prize of free Rise items for one year.
“We are excited to celebrate our grand opening in San Diego by donating to Clay Elementary and giving customers the opportunity to win free Rise,” Kasid said in a statement. “We know the community will love our scratch-made breakfast biscuits and Righteous Chicken for lunch. And the convenience of ordering online or at the kiosk for pick up in our heated lockers means your order is fresh, fast, and hot.”
Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken
Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily
Where: 6364 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego
Online: risebiscuitschicken.com