Starbird Posts $59.4M in Sales, Opens First Midwest Unit

Starbird finished 2025 with $59.4 million in sales, up 28.2% year over year, and now operates just over 20 locations — numbers that put the California-based fast-casual chicken chain in the small but fast-growing cohort that gained share while most Top 500 chains lost it.

On Oct. 19, the chain opened its first Chicago-area restaurant in St. Charles, Illinois, marking its Midwest debut. The unit is the first of five planned for the Chicago market through a partnership with franchise developer Keystone Management Group.

The opening arrives weeks after a separate franchise agreement to develop 15 locations across Washington state. Add the 36-unit Texas deal signed earlier this year with Mac Haik Restaurant Group — Starbird's largest franchise agreement to date — and the brand has quietly committed to more than 50 new units through franchising alone.

Why Chicago, and why now?

Starbird framed the market in purely economic terms. Chicago offers nearly 10 million consumers, which gives the brand room to build awareness at scale as it pushes national expansion. For a chain of roughly 20 units, market density matters more than saturation risk.

Keystone's Melanie Bowling said the company is excited to introduce the California-based brand to the community and "finding a fun way to give back to the schools and students who make this community special."

CEO Greg Levin, appointed in February, kept the focus on unit economics rather than hype.

"Expanding into Chicago is an important milestone for the brand and another example of our disciplined approach to growth," Levin said in a statement. "We're focused on entering markets where we see long-term opportunity and partnering with operators who can help us grow while preserving the guest experience and operational standards that define Starbird."

That word — disciplined — is doing real work. Starbird is growing through franchise partners in every new market: Keystone in Chicago, an unnamed group in Washington state, Mac Haik Restaurant Group in Texas. The company isn't carrying the capital cost of those builds.

What does this change for the chicken segment?

Plenty. Chicken was one of the few categories that thrived in 2025 even as Top 500 chain sales slowed and consumers pulled back on dining, according to Technomic. Starbird's 28.2% sales growth landed well above the industry norm, and its unit count grew 13.3% in a single year — from 15 to 17 company-tracked locations at year-end, with the count now past 20.

Growth is being financed by two names familiar to restaurant dealmakers: longtime partner Dollarhyde Investment Group and investment firm KarpReilly. The leadership bench was rebuilt for the push. Founder Aaron Noveshen moved fully into the chairman role when Levin took the CEO seat in February, and Stefanie Lee joined as chief financial officer in May.

The structure suggests what comes next. A 20-unit chain with three active franchise development agreements — five in Chicago, 15 in Washington, 36 in Texas — is built to at least triple its footprint without another corporate dollar spent on construction. If the Chicago five-unit test performs, the Midwest becomes a fourth front in a national expansion that now stretches from the West Coast through Texas to the Great Lakes.