Since 2001 when Lou Martin opened Uncle Lou’s Fried Chicken in Whitehaven, the restaurant has grown quite a following.

And soon it will be able to grow even more.

By early summer, Martin plans to move the restaurant from its longtime home at 3633 Millbranch Road to a former Wendy’s location at 1725 Winchester Road he’s purchasing.

Memphis restaurants featured on ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’

“Everything’s bigger, but the most important thing is: It’ll be a mortgage, not a rent,” Martin said. “The second important thing is it’s gonna have a drive-thru, and I’ll have my own parking.”

Extended hours and an expanded menu, including breakfast, will also come with the new location. 

“It will be chicken and biscuits, bacon and biscuits, ham, turkey — stuff that I already carry,” he said. “And we’re definitely going to add eggs and coffee.”

Martin plans to serve breakfast from 6 to 10 a.m. and keep the drive-thru open later than the dining room, which will likely close at 8 p.m.

Martin’s restaurant career started in the 1980s. He owned Catfish Express and later Turkey Express, where he found success selling turkey legs at concession stands.

“I ended up selling my business because I wanted to do something different,” he said. “Every 15 to 20 years, I try to go a different direction. (Uncle Lou’s) is the longest I’ve done anything.”

Despite Uncle Lou’s success today, it hasn’t always been an easy road.

“I guarantee we may have been within two weeks to a month-and-a-half of not even being here,” he said of a time around 2008. “I was up to here in debt, and I owed everybody.”

That’s when the Food Network called and everything changed. Uncle Lou’s appeared on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” in August 2008.

“They asked me some different things, and I answered them. And I was in tears actually because you don’t know how long, how hard, I’ve been praying for a national shot,” Martin said. “I tell people all the time: A lot of people don’t go out of business because they don’t have a good product. It’s that they unfortunately don’t have enough power to reach enough people.”

Uncle Lou’s is known for its fried chicken, a recipe passed down from Martin’s great-grandmother, Rosie Gillespie. However, two years ago, Uncle Lou’s started serving chicken tenderloins as well as “premium sides,” including seasoned green beans with potatoes, honey macaroni and cheese and “sweet spicy love beans.”

“You ever seen a Chick-fil-A without a line?” he said. “I knew tenderloins would be a hit.” 

In fact, Uncle Lou’s “sweet spicy love” chicken tenderloins, which are brined for 48 hours, and his honey butter biscuits recently won the People’s Choice Award for the second consecutive year at the Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival — a first in the event’s 23-year history.

“What I like about (the competition) is it’s a people’s choice, not a judge,” Martin said.

The competition comprised restaurants previously featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”

But it’s not the end of the spotlight for Lou Martin. The Food Network recently visited Uncle Lou’s for another episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” and the focus was on the “sweet spicy love beans.” Details on when the episode will air have not been released.

“People say it’s my personality that makes this place what it is, but I like to think it’s the chicken,” Martin said. “I like to think it’s the chicken.”