Chicken & Rice Guys is packing up its Everett warehouse after a decade there and moving its commissary and food truck hub to Woburn, with plans for a new takeout counter after the facility’s October debut. The halal street food operator, known for its rice bowls and food trucks scattered across Greater Boston, will set up shop at 218 W Cummings Park, just south of where Washington Street meets Route 128/I-95.
The new location is a relocation, not an expansion of a separate site, according to co-founder and operating manager Jaemin Lee, who told NBC Boston that the Woburn hub is a direct replacement for the current warehouse and commissary in Everett, where the company operated for 10 years. Lee said the move to Woburn broadens the company’s operating boundaries and opens markets it could not reach from inside the city. The nearly 5,000-square-foot facility is slated to open in October, with takeout service planned for sometime afterward, according to a press release cited by the same outlet.
A Decade-Old Brand Built From a Single Food Truck
Chicken & Rice Guys has come a long way from its origins as a single food truck in 2012. Babson College alumnus Ian So co-founded the company that year after buying its first truck on eBay for $19,000, according to Gold House. What began as one vehicle has grown into a restaurant, food truck, and catering business built around halal street cuisine, with locations today in Boston’s Downtown Crossing, Financial District, Seaport District, and Everett, plus food trucks operating throughout the greater Boston area.
The brand has also built a long track record on the Rose Kennedy Greenway food truck program, where it has operated continuously since 2012 — making it one of the longest-tenured mobile vendors in the park system’s 17-year history, as Hoodline previously reported in coverage of a food truck festival at Rowes Wharf Plaza.
Testing Woburn Before Committing to It
The Woburn move isn’t the company’s first appearance in that corner of the suburbs. Before leasing permanent space there, Chicken & Rice Guys built local brand familiarity by serving office workers and residents during recurring “Food Truck Tuesday” lunch pop-ups at West Cummings Park’s Sisitzky Park, according to property owner Cummings Properties. That pop-up presence effectively let the company gauge suburban demand before signing on for a permanent commissary and warehouse hub…