A new restaurant dedicated to bringing Oxford residents fried chicken is coming to 327 W. Spring St. later this year. Gobbler Chicken will offer a new option to a high-traffic corner of the city.

Gobbler Chicken will offer “fast-casual dining,” with an order counter and indoor and outdoor tables. It will also offer off-street parking, according to Seth Cropenbaker, an economic development specialist with the city of Oxford.

The location, formerly a gas station, has been renovating for several months in preparation for its conversion to a restaurant, said property manager Jacob Young. He said he hopes the restaurant owner, David Kuo, will open before the fall semester. 

“[It’s] definitely something Oxford has been missing,” Young said. “There’s not many places in town that offer outdoor dining.”

The new business comes at a time of significant economic development for the city of Oxford, as plans for a new Waffle House location and a new Fairfield Inn hotel to College Corner Pike are underway.

“It potentially creates an interesting corridor,” Cropenbaker said. “People are certainly interested in a greater variety, greater number of restaurants in town.”

Gobbler Chicken “ticks a lot of boxes,” he said.