At the opening of the Bay Area’s first Chicken Guy restaurant on Thursday night, a cheerful employee worked the door, handing out menus showcasing celebrity owner Guy Fieri’s food, letting diners in gradually and half-joking that she had to limit the number of people inside to avoid the wrath of the fire marshal. Then the firefighters showed up.
They got in line like everyone else, but when they found out it would be an hour wait, they left. For almost everyone else who came out to American Canyon on Thursday evening, the sandwiches, tenders and sauces were worth the wait.
Fieri’s fast-casual chicken joint already has locations in tourist hot spots like Las Vegas, Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, and Disney Springs, Florida, but the American Canyon Chicken Guy is the first of 10 planned locations in Fieri’s stomping grounds of the Bay Area that are opening in partnership with franchise group Chandi Hospitality. (Chicken Guy operates a concession location in Levi’s Stadium, with a much more limited menu.)…