Prince's Hot Chicken shortly after the building was struck by a car in December
Prince’s Hot Chicken, a fixture on Ewing Drive since 1989, will not reopen.
After a car slammed into the building in the early hours of Dec. 28, Prince’s owner Andre Prince Jeffries originally believed that the iconic restaurant would only be closed for two weeks. The location suffered none of the fire damage that affected two neighboring businesses, but Jeffries says that damage to the ceiling rafters has prevented the location from re-opening. After waiting for the landlord to fix things for more than six months, she says they’re now moving on.
“This is the first year since we have been in business that we weren't somewhere in North Nashville,” Jeffries tells the Scene. “We weren't somewhere in North Nashville, so we've got to get back down there. We have several things in the works, but we don't want to announce it yet, because they just kept on, and asking about Ewing, and I told them it was coming, it's coming. [Fans] are really disappointed. Somebody said that it was like a funeral procession, people passing by [the Ewing location], going up the street or down the street, and they'd look over.”
Jeffries moved into the strip mall just off of Dickerson Pike 30 years ago. The location has been a pilgrimage destination for hot chicken lovers as well as, in recent years, every manner of food television — from Andrew Zimmern to the Today show. Sean Brock’s meltdown on PBS’s The Mind of a Chef in 2013 is still one of the best examples of Jeffries’ chicken taking down someone who dared to try her hottest version.
Cars continue to cruise by the Ewing store daily, hoping to catch the restaurant open.
“The Uber drivers would come, let the people out, not knowing that we're closed, and leave them down there. And then the people would have to call them to come back and get them. Oh, they'd be so mad. We got so many reactions from Facebook. We have gotten so many complaints, and my daughter handles it. She said, ‘Mom, these people are going crazy.’”
In the meantime, Prince’s fans can still get the original hot chicken at the South Nashville location, near the intersection of Old Hickory Boulevard and Nolensville Pike, or at a food truck stationed at Yee Haw brewery downtown. A third location will open at the Museum of African American Music next year.
Jeffries says they’re looking for a new North Side location.
“You got to make sure the money is right, but we're definitely are looking,” she says. “We're making some negotiations, have mercy. We're going to have to hurry up and do something. My stoves and deep fryers are in storage.”
For Jeffries, it can’t come soon enough. After working until 4 a.m. for decades, she is unaccustomed to not having a late-night perch to see the restaurant’s fans.
“I miss sitting there, looking at my little customers in that window. I really miss them.”
