Ashley Christensen Launches New Triangle Restaurants, Including Cary Location

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Cary, NC – Cary is getting a new fried chicken sandwich restaurant, backed by the branding of Downtown Raleigh restauranteur and James Beard Award-winner, Ashley Christensen.

The as-of-yet unnamed chicken restaurant is set to open in three locations across the Triangle in 2020, including one in Cary’s Parkside Town Commons by mid-to-late 2020.

Limited information for the restaurant has only been shared so far through a website dubbed “Project Xtra Crispy.”

Christensen, who won the 2019 James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, is launching these restaurants together with MDO Holdings, a Raleigh-based real estate investment and management firm. These chicken restaurants, with a location scheduled for Durham as well as Cary, will be Christensen’s first outside of Downtown Raleigh.

“I have often thought about the right way to expand our reach beyond downtown, and this felt like the perfect opportunity,” Christensen said. “We are excited to bring the approachable, universally comforting flavor of chicken sandwiches to a larger audience, and to bring our cultural approach to a new model of restaurants.”

So far, Project Xtra Crispy says the restaurant will serve varieties of chicken sandwiches, as well as milkshakes, fried pies, draft beer and bottled wine, as well as sides and salads.

Christensen currently operates the fried chicken and chicken sandwich restaurant Beasley’s Chicken + Honey in Downtown Raleigh, as well as several other downtown businesses.

Story by Michael Papich. Photos courtesy of Project Xtra Crispy.