Dick’s still sells burgers but its new Broadway neighbor Rizzo’s will bring yet more chicken to Capitol Hill

TikTok guy Nick Rizzo breaking the Broadway chicken news

News is where you find it these days so it should not be hugely surprising that details of yet another new combatant in the coming war for chicken supremacy across Capitol Hill and the Central District comes from a Seattle reality star’s TikTok video we saw on Youtube thanks to a CHS reader.

Rizzo’s Crispy Chicken is lined up to be yet another new Capitol Hill-area chicken joint with a new restaurant taking shape on Broadway. The space was most recently home to the Don’t Yell At Me bubble tea shop that shuttered earlier this year in — we’re not making this up — a suite left empty by the exit of one of the two Broadway ZoomCare locations. Paperwork filed over the summer after the tea joint’s closure provided a few clues about what was coming next as the suite was prepared with the addition of a new “3 phase 50A circuit” for a deep fryer.

Next to Dick’s Drive-in, Rizzo’s could be set up for success next to the Hill’s busiest food joint. A McDonald’s at Broadway and E Olive Way would only add to the area’s fast food draw.

According to permit filings, Rizzo’s is being opened by Seattle area entrepreneur Samer Shammar who is also apparently opening another location in the Pinehurst commercial strip where he grew a smoke shop business.

Rizzo’s is part of what will surely lead to the great Central Seattle chicken war of 2027 as newcomers like Port of Peri Peri Chicken and the San Francisco-born Starbird Chicken chain on E Pike in a portion of the block’s emptied Amazon grocery store join a comically robust flock of chicken-related eateries opening across the area.

Industry reports say chicken concepts deliver resilient profit margins and simplified kitchen prep, keeping down food and labor costs against rising overhead in cities like Seattle and growing neighborhoods like the Central District and Capitol Hill.

It also helps that chicken holds up well for delivery.

As for TikTok Seattle dude Nick Rizzo, the in the works chicken joint

Unlike influencer Matt Broussard who has signed on to help Seattle restaurant group Conscious Hospitality Group launch Char the Chicken, a “fire-grilled rotisserie chicken” concept, in the group’s former chicken sandwich chain’s spot opening on 11th Ave, TikTok Seattle dude Nick Rizzo’s relationship to Rizzo’s seems like only some fun content for the influencer without any crunchy chicken skin in the game.

Rizzo’s Crispy Chicken will open soon at 125 Broadway E.

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