When Bag Lady’s Chip & Fry Co. opens its first brick-and-mortar location on Buchanan Street this spring, the Littleton brothers hope you’ll show up for the fries. But as far as their empire is concerned, Buchanan Street is just the brothers’ first stop.
Like their entrepreneurial neighbors Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria — which started on Buchanan Street and now has locations across the city as well as in Atlanta, Sacramento and Memphis — the Littleton brothers plan on being a national brand. They hope to have 10 locations in the next two years.
It’s been a fast ride for the Nashville natives, who opened their fry-centric food truck less than a year ago. They named it in honor of their late grandmother, who had a knack for making french fries that were crispy on the outside and textured on the inside. She kept bags of chopped potatoes stored in her freezer, so naming the food truck Bag Lady’s just made sense.
The Bag Lady’s menu includes pizza fries, hot chicken fries, Philly cheesesteak fries and gyro fries, plus add-ons of five different sauces, including Fye Fye (a spicy ranch). Burgers, cauliflower wings and other eats serve as supporting dishes to the fries, not the other way around. Their motto? “We don’t want to be your side dish.”
The Block Is Hot
Bag Lady’s will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, with 40 to 50 seats inside, a patio with seating for 20, and a full-service bar. And yes, they’re keeping the food truck. Just as Roy Acuff advised musicians to play the song that got them to the Grand Ole Opry when they finally made it to the hallowed stage, the brothers aren’t going to forget what made them popular. “The food truck got us here,” brother Brandon Littleton says. “We would not abandon that.”
The brothers have owned other businesses together, including a dry cleaner. Even as kids, they say, they sold candy and secondhand toys. During the pandemic, they brainstormed business ideas that would thrive during social distancing. Brandon worked in finance for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. James Littleton worked as a truck driver, Uber driver and entrepreneur. (Both brothers now work on Bag Lady’s full time.) A food truck leveraged their individual strengths.
They searched for a truck that would fit their business model, but trucks were in short supply and pricey. So they bought a $4,000 trailer frame, drove it to Georgia and spent $25,000 for a fully functional, custom-designed truck. That food truck spent most of 2021 on Gallatin Avenue, and originally the brothers were eyeing one of the spots in the forthcoming restaurant hub The Wash for their first location. But there was a wait-list, and the Littletons were ready to move forward. When they learned about the Buchanan Street space they realized it was a better fit.
“We’re not just trying to just be a french fry restaurant,” says James. “We want to be the change in that North Nashville neighborhood.” He attended nearby Fisk University, and as kids both brothers went to day care at Tennessee State University — they feel connected to the neighborhood. They hope to be another Black business that creates jobs (yes, they are hiring) with 401(k)s. Brandon’s analytical leanings led him to look at 401(k) participation in that ZIP code (lower than average) and unemployment (higher than average), and they want to change that. (For more on the importance of new Black entrepreneurship on Buchanan Street, you can watch a Best of Nashville Day video from 2021 with the Littleton brothers and the team from Slim & Husky’s.)
Brandon concedes there’s always an additional layer when running a business with family members. “We battle because we’re brothers,” he says. “But if I am going to fight with someone, it is going to be my brother.”
Brandon (left) and James Littleton
