Nanu’s Hot Chicken is Coming to Downtown Cortland

Nanu’s Hot Chicken will be opening their second New York location in Downtown Cortland at 107-111 Main Street, the former Bernard’s location at the corner of Main and Port Watson Street. Nanu’s was recently granted approval for their outside signage by the City of Cortland Historic Commission during their meeting this past Tuesday. An opening is planned for February.

Nanu’s Hot Chicken currently operates 14 locations, primarily in the Philadelphia area; the chain recently opened a location at 7 Court Street in Binghamton. Nanu’s offers chicken sandwiches, tenders, wings, wraps, fries, smoothies, and more. Customers also have the option to decide how hot they’d like their meal. Ranging from no spice to reaper.

The Historic Commission reviewed proposed outdoor signage for the front and side of the building. Saad Ahman, representative of Nanu’s, was in attendance at the meeting and provided an overview of the planned restaurant. Mr. Ahman spoke on a front facade with their business logo, a chicken, and the wording “Nanu’s Hot Chicken.” A side entrance along Port Watson would have similar wording.

Overall, the commission found the proposed coloring of the signs to be consistent with the approved Historic District color pallet with Chair Linda Kline reviewing sign lettering sizes on neighboring buildings as part of a comparative assessment of the proposed signage.

The commission ultimately voted unanimously to approve the proposed signage with a condition the square footage of the sign be reduced to be in compliance with city code and the letter be reduced to 30” from its proposed 33”.

According to Nanu’s, the business began with 4 brothers who dreamed of making a real change happen and a passion for helping anyone in need.

“Family is one of the most important things that we value in life and while growing up, our mother always feared who would care for our brother, Nanu, if anything ever happened to our parents. Nanu is our amazing little brother who was born with Down syndrome and is the source of our love and compassion. We never wanted our mother to fear so we came up with a plan to make sure our family and Nanu always had a successful business to help support us and him in the future. We started in the food and restaurant industry over 20 years ago with one food cart in New York City. Alhamdulillah over the last 20 years, we were blessed enough to own and operate over 30 businesses in the food and restaurant industry.”