Birds of a feather: New restaurant to join College Station chicken strip

College Station residents who are thirsty for beer will find ample options in the Northgate District. Those hungry for chain restaurant food can have their druthers on University Drive's restaurant row.

And soon diners who crave chicken can visit Chicken Finger Row on Texas Avenue. Or should it be the Chicken Strip? Or Fowl Territory? Cock-a-Doodle-Drive?

No matter the name, the small stretch of Texas Avenue across from the Texas A&M campus is turning heads as the Holubec family prepares to open a new chicken strip restaurant there in late March. The bar and grill will be located between Layne's and Raising Cane's, making three chicken joints in a row.

And no, the new restaurant will not be called Jane's. It's sign out front says "Fowl Digits."

Owner Mark Holubec said the restaurant will differ from its neighbors. He plans to sell alcohol and stock the space with 55 flat-screen televisions.

Layne's and Cane's offer bare-bones menus that focus on their chicken and dipping sauces. Fowl Digits will offer sandwiches, salads, quesadillas and more, Holubec said.

"It is a very different atmosphere than those guys," he said.

But he acknowledged that choosing to move between two existing chicken joints may seem unusual.

"If you told me when we started out that this is where we would end up, I would have said, 'No way,'" he said.

But the site -- across from campus and on the busiest street in town -- was too good to pass up, he said.

So he said he will embrace the unusual cluster of chicken and hopes his neighbors will, too.

Layne's is the original Texas Avenue chicken strip restaurant. It has operated out of its modest cinder-block building since 1994, becoming somewhat of an Aggieland icon.

Cane's opened its doors in 2006. It has a similar name and menu, but is part of a larger chain founded in Baton Rouge, La., that has 116 restaurants in 16 states.

"We are competitors but we respect what [Layne's] does and the traditions they have with Texas A&M," said Luke Overman, an operations advisor who works with the chain's Texas locations. "We have coexisted well."

Mike Garratt, owner of Layne's, was out of town and couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. But he told The Battalion in 2010 that sales have "soared" since Cane's moved next door.

And both existing restaurants are expanding in College Station. Layne's has opened a new location on Wellborn Road. Cane's will open a branch at Post Oak Mall in April. So far, no other chicken strip joints have announced plans to open nearby.