Champs Nashville Hot Chicken, a downtown Pensacola favorite for fried chicken nestled inside The Garden , is saying goodbye. However, a new tenant is hot on its heels to take its place in the coming weeks.
Jon Smith Subs , a specialty sandwich franchise that has been growing in popularity since 1988, will be setting up shop in Champs’ place, according to The Garden’s managing partner Michael Carro. Champs had a three-year lease with The Garden. Carro praised the restaurant’s “simple, straight-forward menu” focused on different levels of heat for the fried chicken products.
Jon Smith Subs is not new to the quick-service kiosk world and opened its first Pensacola location inside the Cordova Mall food court in November of 2022. However, franchise CEO Robert Cvetkovski came to Pensacola with multiple locations in mind and established the city as the company’s global headquarters.
“Everyone that buys a Jon Smith Subs in the country, or globally, would have to come to Pensacola now for training. … Pensacola has become the global headquarters for John Smith Subs,” Cvetkovski said at the time. “Two weeks will happen where it’s like classroom training, and that’s also going to happen locally in Pensacola, and then two weeks of onsite training where we’re teaching them how to operate the business.”