Bojangles’ breakfast is built on Southern cooking traditions, and now the chain hopes it’s a recipe for success in New York City.
The chain, headquartered in North Carolina but with locations across the Southeast, opened its first New York location in Brooklyn on January 12.
Bojangles’ new Flatbush restaurant features 38 dine-in seats and a drive-thru, tapping into a broader trend of New Yorkers’ enthusiasm for grab-and-go breakfast.
“New Yorkers are famous for eating their bagels and cream cheese, and I think we’re going to turn a lot of heads with our fresh-made buttermilk biscuits and our really flavorful chicken filets,” Marshall Scarborough, the chain’s vice president of menu and culinary innovation, told Business Insider.
“We’ve learned from all the Southern cooks out there, the grandmas and the Southern chefs that have been making this stuff for many years,” he said. “We’re just taking what we’ve learned and modernizing it for today’s customer.”
That approach is most evident in Bojangles’ all-day breakfast menu, which has long been a defining part of the chain’s identity.
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The chain is entering a city with deeply entrenched breakfast habits — a 2024 survey found that the average New Yorker eats roughly 111 bagels a year — but Scarborough believes Bojangles’ biscuits can compete with local staples.
The menu is simple, focusing on favorites like bacon-egg-and-cheese, sausage-egg-and-cheese, and chicken sandwiches, all served on the chain’s buttermilk biscuits. As part of its expansion in the North, the chain is also testing made-to-order iced coffee.
“It’s not just a sad breakfast,” Scarborough said.
When Business Insider visited the new Bojangles restaurant ahead of its grand opening, we found juicy, well-seasoned chicken and flaky biscuits, which the chain said involves a “49-step process.” Bojangles believes quality is essential to winning over new customers.
“There’s a lot of art and science that goes into making the perfect biscuit,” Scarborough said.
Breakfast could be the new fast-food battleground
Erin McDowell/Business Insider
As fast-food chains contend with declining foot traffic, rising prices, and consumers who are more selective about where they spend their money, breakfast is emerging as a promising growth opportunity.
Chains from McDonald’s to Dunkin have upped their breakfast offerings in recent years, focusing on value-driven meal deals they hope will become a part of customers’ daily routines. For its part, Bojangles says 31% of its sales at its company-operated full-size locations occur before 11 a.m.
But breakfast still remains a challenging daypart for fast-food chains.
Nation’s Restaurant News reported that breakfast traffic at quick-service restaurants fell 8.7% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year. The decline is steeper than at other dayparts: Lunch dipped 2%, while dinner grew 1.8%.
Bojangles hopes that by offering something slightly different in the fast-food breakfast landscape, it will translate to sales among office workers and families seeking convenient, filling meals.
“You want to be the office hero — bring a box of biscuits,” Scarborough said.
