A new restaurant called Fricken Chicken? No fricken way, Bluffton leaders say

A restaurant planned for Old Town Bluffton ought to consider a new name, town leaders say.

Andes Fricken Chicken, a potential tenant for a proposed 5,000-square-foot two-story building at 7 Johnston Way, came under fire earlier this week during a Bluffton Town Council meeting.

The name — an alternative for a similar-sounding curse word — is not a positive representation of the values Bluffton stands for, officials said.

During a public comment session Tuesday, former Bluffton Mayor Emmett McCracken took to the podium — “at the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon or a stick-in-the-mud” — and said that while the word “fricken” is often “heard on late-night television and in street conversation,” it is not appropriate for use in the name of a business.

“The fact that (foul language) has pervaded our culture does not mean as a community we have to necessarily endorse it,” he said. “(The town does) not accept the lowest common denominator when it comes to planning, or public safety, or protection of the May River — so why should we accept the lowest reaches of the English language?”

While McCracken said he recognizes that town leadership is somewhat limited in its ability to dictate terms to business owners, he “urge(d) council to apply what persuasive power’s they have to come up with (a name for the restaurant) that’s a little bit different.”

Town Councilman Larry Toomer said he recently met with the owners of the proposed chicken location “and had a long heart-to-heart with them and reminded them where they live, and where our kids go to school, and what we try to teach them about what we would prefer them include in their vocabulary, and what we prefer they not include in it.”

Andrew Fishkind, Andes Fricken Chicken’s would-be owner, could not be reached for comment after repeated attempts Tuesday and Wednesday.

Councilman Dan Wood said while he agrees with McCracken, he doesn’t “know how the council would police” the naming of businesses.

Regardless, the subject is worth of continued discussion from town leaders, he said.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Wood said. “If it’s ‘fricken’ today, it’s going to be something else tomorrow and this will continue to come to Bluffton.”

Toomer said he “hope(s) this thing can get resolved in a nice Bluffton way of doing business.”

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 12:41 PM with the headline "A new restaurant called Fricken Chicken? No fricken way, Bluffton leaders say."