09-05-2025
Southern Fast Food Chain Bojangles Opens First Location in Major Northeast Expansion
New Jersey's culinary scene is getting hit with a deep-fried Southern twist.
While the Garden State has long been dominated by Italian restaurants and menus filled with local specialties including tomato pie and Taylor pork rolls, it is now officially also home to the area's first location of Bojangles, a beloved fast-food restaurant that originated in Charlotte, North Carolina, nearly 50 years ago.
In February, the Asbury Park Press reported that a Bojangles restaurant would be moving into the new Market Place at Neptune, a former bottling warehouse for Coca-Cola that has since been turned into a popular pitstop for local shoppers and on-the-go diners on the Jersey Shore. But plans clearly changed in the months since then, as New Jersey Digs reports that Bojangles' first Jersey outpost is now open in Piscataway, located just a few minutes away from New Brunswick.
That Neptune restaurant is still a go—as are planned locations in Marlboro and Vineland, too. It's part of the brand's fairly aggressive push into the Northeast, though it's worth noting that it's not the restaurant's first attempt at this kind of expansion. reports that a Bojangles did previously exist in Newark, New Jersey, but that it closed 'years ago.' So think of this as Take 2.
Bojangles, which is known for its bold, Cajun-flavored fried chicken and made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuits, currently boasts just over 800 locations. According to it current sits in the 28th spot on its list of the 50 Most Popular U.S. Fast Food restaurants, just between Shake Shack (which it beat) and Zaxby's.
