LAFAYETTE, La. — All it took was a good review from a trusted fellow businessman, an initial investigation on the Internet, and one trip each to Southern Classic Chicken locations in Alexandria and Many before Jessie Fontenot evolved from a customer into a possible proprietor.
Fontenot, a veteran of the oil field industry, was looking for another business opportunity and investment when a friend in the restaurant business told him about Southern Classic, not only about the company’s tasty product and appeal, but also about its owners’ interest in expanding and franchising.
The fire was lit.
Today, that fire has spread to Acadiana, where Jessie, wife Amanda, and their son Brody are cooking up something good in Lafayette.
In June 2025, more than three decades after the company’s founding and less than three years after Fontenot had enjoyed his first Southern Classic bone-in thigh, the company opened its 18th location and first franchise with the Fontenot family running the show along a booming corridor at Johnston Street and Lana Drive in Lafayette.
“We love good food in Acadiana,” said Fontenot, south-Louisiana born and raised just down the road in Eunice. “We love our fried chicken. This is going to change the way people feel about drive-thru, bone-in chicken.
“I’ve been nothing but impressed with the company since Day One. This is a family franchise representing the best food and efficient, friendly service. I want all our customers to get the same experience my family has been getting for the past three years.”
So far, so good since an opening day that “by far exceeded our expectations,” Fontenot said. “We’ll do our part to make sure every person who comes through the line has the same quick service with a smile and the same hot, tasty meal they get at every other location.”
Founded by Leon and Howard Fanning in north Louisiana, the second-generation family-run business now led by cousins Alan (Howard’s son), Brandon, and Alex (Leon’s sons) was built on the pillars of patience and integrity to get things just right, on an earnest intention to listen to each other and to customers so improvements would be constant, and on family as the most important thing, whether in sharing a business opportunity or in making a family happy with a meal that tastes like home.
“We’re really choosy when it comes to who we partner with, whether that be a vendor or a franchisee,” Southern Classic Vice President of Brand Operations Tom Gerdes Jr. said. “We’re pretty easy to get along with; we just want to make sure our values and our vision line up exactly right.
“Once you’re in,” he said, “you’re family to us.”
That’s been Fontenot’s experience.
“Dealing with the Fanning family has been a pleasure,” he said. “It’s been exceptional, the job their team has done creating leaders and getting people on board with their culture and what they want to do. My wife, my son and I have been completely satisfied with the support we’ve gotten from the Fanning family. We needed anything, any question answered, they were there immediately.”
It started, of course, with the product. The chicken. The marinade. Perfecting the frying. Perfecting the sides. Then keeping things simple.
“There is an art to reproducing perfectly what works best when it comes to creating our product,” Fontenot said. “The Fannings mastered it.”
The biggest hurdle in opening a Lafayette franchise was the real estate. The company looked at Opelousas, Carencro, even Houston. But no less than the chicken gods must have stepped in as space became available in a sleepy part of town that had begun growing faster than chicks turn into fryers.
The Johnston Street location was designed to hold and move traffic. Any Southern Classic customer will see a culture that includes fast-moving lines and efficiency.
It’s taken time, but these proven tools plus experienced support is the recipe for future franchises and franchise families.
“It’s a different kind of ownership,” Gerdes said. “This family. This is a business built on pride in doing things the right way, honoring those we serve. Running any of our locations is about more than good food and quick service. It’s about leading people inside the business and operating in a proven, efficient way so that a team becomes a family.
“When you do that,” Gerdes said, “you can’t lose.”
And that means repeatable customers, which is the mission: to bring fans of Southern Classic back. That, and recruit new “fans.” Ultimately, to bring Louisiana’s love for southern fried chicken to communities across America.