Chicken N' Pickle Thornton

Thank you for tuning in. I'm Greg. I'm Mike. And we are the Pickleballers Next Door. We are for the Joes and not the pros. Your court, our court. Thanks for tuning in to the Pickleballers Next Door. I'm Greg. I'm Mike. And I'm Kris Anna. And we're here today at the Chicken and Pickle in Thornton, day before the grand opening. We're going to talk with a couple of the managers, Molly and Adam, and see what this Chicken and Pickle is all about and what they see in the future here in Thornton. You ready for this, Kris Anna? Yes, I'm ready. This is a great facility. Wow. Do you like chicken and pickles? I don't know. I'm going to have to try them. They do have fried pickles here. Yeah, I know the food here is outstanding. He didn't get to eat his brookie brownie. Yeah. Mike ate three quarters of it. I said, I just want one. I'm so full. And it was good. Oh my gosh. He's like, I just want a spoonful. And then like 12 spoonfuls later, I didn't have a cookie. He said, yeah, do you want me to order you one? I said, no, yours is good. It's always better when it's somebody else's. It is true. That's true. Yes. Tastes better. Absolutely. And we're in Missouri, Kansas, right? Kansas City. And they, uh, we went back for a second night just for the food. Oh wow. Okay. So we'll have to try the food. I was here the night too. They did have like a buffet, but the, the, the, what I had of the, uh, uh, ribs and stuff. Oh my gosh. Really? Yeah. Oh yeah. I cheated on you guys. I know you did. I didn't want to eat. I needed to eat. I didn't know if there was enough food for all of us. Oh, get out of here. So yeah, we're, we're excited. So we're going to have them on the show here and, uh, with our new 2.0. Yep. So stay tuned. If you are looking for some on court swag and don't know what to do, you want something funny, something kind of off the wall, casual dinker pickleballers.com. Uh, everything is 25% off for the year of 2025. So go get it. All right. We are here at the chicken and pickle. It's important day before the opening. Uh, we're here with Molly. Why don't you tell us your role here at the chicken and pickle? Well, hello. Um, so I am our corporate sales account manager. So I handle all of our corporate events and partnerships. Um, so anything from events as small as five people for business meetings up to total property buyouts. That's kind of my wheelhouse or, or podcasts. I mean, your podcast, you do whatever you, I think you do everything. You really are emotional support. I do all of that too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do that all that too. So do you play pickleball? So I am a novice player. I definitely like to dink around, but I'm not a hardcore. Okay. She has fun though. We played, we got to play a little bit together. And how did you get involved with chicken and pickle? So I am actually from North Kansas city, which is where our very first location was built. Um, and I had a couple of friends that had worked for the company whenever it first opened, they just served bartended all of that jazz. And I was always really interested. Again, it was in my backyard. So I just started going as a patron. And then a couple of years ago, one of my friends, um, reached out and was like, Hey, they have the sales position that's available. And I think you'd be really great for it. At the time I was over distillery. Um, I was their bar manager, venue manager, um, kind of Jack of all trades at that location. So went ahead and applied just to find out a little bit more about the company, what they're passionate about and our values just align so seamlessly. I was like, I have to be involved here. So funny story. Um, the position that I initially applied for actually did not get that role, but they were like, Hey, we're going to open another one in a few months. And I think that it would just really, really fit you a lot better. And that was the sales account manager for our North Kansas city location. So got a call back in January, ended up, um, coming on. And my plan was actually to move out to Colorado earlier that year. So it was kind of serendipitous whenever I started with the company. Nice. One thing just worked out. Yes. And it was so crazy. I think it was in the first 30 days of me being on with the company that they announced that they're opening this location. And I had my transfer requested before they were even done with the announcement. So it's, it kind of just worked out perfectly. Um, this property opened up exactly whenever I wanted to move. So I've gotten to be with the company for two and a half years, get, get really comfortable with it, really understand our values, our clientele. Um, so it's just really exciting to be out here in Colorado. Oh, Colorado is beautiful. I mean, and it's pickleball here is pretty crazy. I think you're finding out about people here. Yeah. Um, I know that I've been driving, my parents live really close by. And when I go to their house, every time I'm like, is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? And it's been a while. It's been what? Close to a year that they've been building over a year. Yeah. But you put a lot into this facility. Oh my gosh. We do. This is ground up too. Yep. And we really genuinely do think of everything. Um, this is our 13th location. So after having 12 under your belt, we'd kind of figure out what doesn't, doesn't work, but this location is really unique because we are the only chicken and pickle that has our indoor pickleball courts attached to our main restaurant. Yeah. I did notice that because, uh, the ones in, uh, we were in North Kansas city that they were not that you're right. I didn't realize that. Every single one of our other locations, you have to walk outside, um, to get to our pickleball dome. So that was a unique feature to this build, but to meet all your doors roll up, which is kind of neat. So you still bring the outside in, but Colorado, here's a little dry. So you've got to have a little different climate here, right? You've got to get used to that. And I didn't even think about it, but our kitchen is a 96% from scratch kitchen. So just like even cooking at a higher elevation is completely different. Baking. Yeah. Everything. Yeah. It's rough. I'm, I'm going to say like the Southern fried pimento chicken sandwich hands down is one of the best chicken sandwiches I've had to date. What's your favorite? I love the classic pickled chicken and our Southwest chicken salad. Those are like my go to is I probably eat them three times a week. Can't forget about the brookie is me. I keep waiting. I'll tell you, Mike can't forget about it. It's the, it's a hot cookie Brownie with ice cream on top. And I bought one in Kansas city and I was like, Mike, you want to try it? He's like, Oh, I'm so full. And he took a spoonful. And then like a minute later, it was like three quarters gone. I was like, Mike, man, you want me to get you one? And he's like, no, I got yours is good. The food is fantastic. We came back a second night. We were out there for the PBA PPA. There you go. But we were out there and we went a second night. The food was so good. And when I came here on the 19th, he gave us a little pre and the ribs and everything that night were so good. They were amazing. The food is amazing. So I know I've had the burger and that chicken pimento sandwich. Both were outstanding. I'm trying to, the cookie was good. And I don't know, do we have something else along the way? We had, we had some side, I don't remember what it was. We overordered, but we ate it all as we always over. We're here tomorrow for the grand opening. So we're going to be the foods out. Yes. And we are so excited. It is so much fun being able to share this property with the community. There is nothing that has been harder than seeing is that empty. So we're so excited for tomorrow. It opens at 8 AM tomorrow. Yep. Everybody at the tournament, we were talking about you guys all week, a weekend, we were at a big tournament. And so, yeah, people are excited. People are waiting. I'm, I'm, I'm scared to see what's going to come through the gates here. I'm so excited. I actually just got stopped by a group of people on my way in to do this podcast. And they were like, are you guys open yet? Can we come in and see it? And I was like a couple more hours. I was like, there's no one there to cook for you tomorrow. And it's all the little tedious stuff happening right now. Yep. The adjusting of looks like water pressure right now. Yeah. Double, triple, quadruple checking everything, making sure that we're all prepared for our guests. Um, we went ahead and gave all of our servers and staff today off so they could rest and reset. Cause they have crushed it this last week during mock service. 190 employees for this place. And wow. I didn't realize it till I came the other night. And we, I realize that now when we were in Kansas, they come up to you. Do I need something, sir? Can I get just drink? That's incredible. The service that you're going to bring, it's not just some bar. It's not someplace just get drinks. You're serving people and make sure they're having a really good time. Yes. Hospitality is definitely very important to us. And one of my favorite things about chicken and pickle is we are so about promoting from within. So we have so many people that are even on our sales team that started as host or servers and have worked their way up to event coordinators or director of sales. So it's just really cool that the company provides that opportunity to those younger staff. So is this a franchise or is it just, Nope, we are privately owned. That's incredible. Cause there there's 12 now. This is lucky number 13. We've been calling it 14. I gotta say you have it right though. I think you guys are taking over the world with the way you're doing things for people that want to have a lot of fun. This is where you come. Yes. So how many courts do you have? So we have six indoor courts at this location and two outdoor covered courts. Yeah. Eight total. Yeah. Eight total. And are you guys, I think I know the answer to this, but maybe I don't, but are you guys opening up another one down South? So we were looking at property out South. Yeah. Around Centennial Parker is kind of where we've been looking just at the entrance of this property already. We definitely want to make a good area. You're going to need a few of these. I've been told the Valley. I don't know if that's true. That's a no comment. I was like, I can't speak to that one right now. Well, the nice, the nice part we were here, I was here on the 19th and is busy, but there's something for everybody to do. So you, if you're not a pickleballer, you can bring your family, you can play corn hole. You can play that massive battleship battleship. Isn't that fun? I mean, they have ping pong, they have a corn hole, they have a foosball, um, there's a second level to this too. There is a second level, which is so exciting. I didn't realize it until I had moved out here, but we are the first location in Thornton to have a rooftop, which is so awesome. And it's great, especially if you're coming to join us and you have those kids that might be around that age where they don't want to hang out with mom and dad. You can see them pretty much anywhere around the property. So it really is a choose your own adventure kind of style. It is, it really is. And you, they actually have windows up there. You can watch them play. So, I mean, you've thought of everything here and there's several different places. If you want to drink, you don't have to wait in one line. Every place has its own bar. I mean, I'm sitting in this one spot and I can see three bars. Yeah, they know how to entertain. Yeah. Nice. And you can close these down to like your different areas. You can actually be private because that's what, there was a wedding when we were out there. Remember our DJ was there and they closed it off and it was, yeah. And it was busy, but it was good. I love the green couches. I love the green couches. The courts are beautiful. Oh, thank you so much. We're very proud of them. And so does every chicken and pickle have the same color courts? Um, yes and no. So we started theming our outdoor courts a couple of years ago. I can't remember which build, um, but each location will have outdoor courts that are themed to their location. So I saw the Colorado flag. Yep. Yep. We have our Colorado courts out here in Texas. We have our Texas courts in Kansas city, Missouri. We have our hearts are local courts. So try and always incorporate local artists as well, which is really cool. The murals that you'll see whenever you're driving up are all done from local artists that we source. So whenever we say our hearts are local, we really truly do mean that. That's awesome. If you drive by here at night, I've been by here while you're open. It glows. Does it have lights on? I mean, you know, chicken and pickles here. Yes. I love it. So funny. I love it. And I think our location being just right off the highway. Easy access. Yeah. Yeah. I told her right, right. You're there. That's why I told you off the freeway. Right, right, right, right. Right away. She came from the South. So it was funny as they was like, where is it? I just go right, right. Get 144th. Go right, right. And you're right there. You can't miss it from the freeway either. Yeah. So we need one in Parker. Yeah. That's why I'm like, oh, maybe in Parker. Maybe, maybe in Dove Valley. Who knows? Yeah. So what are the, what is the, what are the times that it's open and close? So we are open, um, Monday through Friday from 8am or excuse me, Monday through Thursday from 8am until 11pm Friday and Saturday until midnight and then Sunday until 10. Wow. Yeah. So it's seven days a week. Yeah. Seven days a week. We are only closed three days out of the year and that is Christmas, Thanksgiving, and then our hearts are local day. That's awesome. That is awesome. Great place to have a party. It's a fantastic. Yeah. We love to host parties. You're going to see us. You're going to see that. I saw the 19th. There's nothing more than we love just bringing in our friends, feeding them really, really good food. And the nice thing is if you ever want to book an event with us is we take care of all of that for you. So we take care of the planning, the setup, the staff, all of that jazz. So all you have to do is show up, have fun and be your boss on the pickleball court. I like it. I like it. Yes. So I was just, you're going to be at this one specifically or you have like Colorado when everything gets rolling. Um, so this is my location specifically right now. Okay. Cool. Nice. Cool. Well, you are incredible. So fun. You are so responsive as busy as you are. It's very nice. You're very responsive to everybody. So I've loved working with you so far. And Molly, um, tell everyone where people can get ahold of you if they want to book something. Yeah, absolutely. So you can go to our website and select our Thornton location and either submit an inquiry and just go ahead and put my name and the additional information or you can reach me directly at 816-848-8434 or by email at m m c g o v e r n at chicken, the letter n pickle.com. Nice. You can't miss her. Her energy and smile is a great smile. Thank you so much. It makes it really easy whenever you're passionate about what you do. And with a, with a company that's so awesome and give so much back to the community and it's just so passionate about inclusivity and bringing everyone together. It's, it's kind of hard not to love what you do. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. We're going to be here. We can't wait to be here. Thank you. Thank you so much. I just want to say thank you to a sweet sip for supporting the podcast. A sweet sip is a very delicious CBD drink, non-alcoholic for great flavors. It helps me take the edge off when I'm going to play in a pickleball tournament. If you want to get some check them out at drinkasweetsip.com