One of the country’s fastest-growing restaurant chains is looking forward to opening its third Mississippi franchise soon.

Huey Magoo’s is preparing to serve its signature chicken tenders made from real chicken tenderloins. The founders of the restaurant chain call their tenders the filet mignon and the best 3% of the chicken.

Kristi Orr, Huey Magoo’s franchisee in Brookhaven, said they hope to be open by the end of May.

She said, of course, everything is subject to change with construction.

Original estimates were for January and February, but weather and supply delays slowed construction.  Electrical work will start this week on the chicken tender restaurant.

Huey Magoos is located between Bumpers and O’Reilly’s on US51 and will be the company’s third location in Mississippi, with one in Pearl and one in McComb.

They have started staffing work ahead of opening.

“We are super, super excited. We started interviewing for our management team this past week to ensure we open with a full management team and staff,” Orr said. “We want to bring them on board in plenty of time. Train them in McComb or Pearl, whichever is geographically closer to them.

Our end-of-May opening will be good because the kids will be out of school. We hope to do good hiring, slam it out during the summer, and when those kids go back to school, we will adjust our schedules.”

She hopes to provide local students with a healthy environment to work in. She said school, church and family come first, and they will work with employees, especially when school is in session.

High School students make up a large portion of their staff at the McComb and Pearl locations. Orr said she enjoys working with them.

“You get good kids, and you see a bright future in them. You have a chance to mold them and help them grow into adults,” she said. “We had kids move on to college, and we helped them get jobs at other restaurants. I enjoy being able to help people as they become adults and provide a good environment for adults too. We have a girl who worked at our McComb location. She went off to college and is still in college but will be back next week. She is now exploring her options and will work as a shift lead to see what it is like to work in the restaurant industry as a career.”