Customers Flock to “Best Fried Chicken in Utah”

Pretty Bird chef and founder Viet Pham is a national and global award-winning chef who has appeared on numerous cooking shows from various networks, including the Food Network, National Geographic Channel, and Hulu. Voted Best Fried Chicken in Utah by the Food Network, he and his wife Alexis have made a name for themselves through their Nashville-style hot chicken.

Viet began his career in finance, but soon learned he preferred making people happy through good food and hospitality. He and Alexis opened Pretty Bird in Salt Lake City in 2018 and have since added three locations – Sugarhouse, Midvale, and Park City.

Pretty Bird’s mission is to provide guests with high-quality, consistent food that is made in-house while providing attentive service to every guest. Alexis says Pretty Bird presents a vision that can be tasted, heard, and felt.

“The food we serve is uniquely different because we focus on fine dining principles and refinement, which we hope creates a superior product,” Alexis states. “We also have extremely talented employees, and we work hard to offer the industry’s most competitive pay, benefits, positive culture, opportunities for growth, and stability.”

Alexis says it is deeply satisfying to see their amazing employees act and make the wheels turn, which makes Pretty Bird possible. She says since they first opened, the most important thing they taught their team was to never get comfortable.

“You have to roll with the punches and always be ready to innovate and adapt,” she says. “When the pandemic hit, the biggest challenge we faced was pivoting business practices. We had to close our doors and open online ordering, which was something we never thought could be done because we had so much volume coming in-person with just one store.”

As Pretty Bird adjusted to the challenges of the pandemic, they also expanded and opened new stores and rolled out their self-order KIOSK system.

“While this helped Pretty Bird reduce wait times and improve order accuracy, it has also really given our customers a sense of convenience and safety,” says Alexis. “In addition, technology is a constant challenge. We continue to find ways to develop and efficiently run all our restaurants while providing state-of-the-art technology.”

The SBDC assisted Alexis and Viet with market research and helped them hone in on specific locations for Pretty Bird.

Alexis said, “Peter Callister, our counselor, was a tremendous help. The new markets we are tapping into are diverse demographics with people who are willing to spend more money on quality and consistency. Growth opportunity allows us to scale and grow smart and slowly into different markets because of demand.”

When asked what advice she had for someone starting a business, Alexis recommends that you surround yourself with people smarter than you and build a team that believes in you and your company’s mission, vision, and values.
Additionally, she states, “You have to provide a positive work environment where everyone loves what they do. The focus of a business is to create jobs. If money is your main and/or only focus, you won’t be successful in business.”