The announcement of the cajun chicken chain’s arrival in Minot has inspired a great deal of interest in the community. Owners Harold Rose, Admir Mujakovic, Steven Marshall and their team have already lit the fryers and were in the process of stocking the lines in anticipation of a planned soft opening for friends and family on Thursday.

Rose, who also owns Papa John’s restaurants in Minot, Minot Air Force Base, Williston and Dickinson, said the Minot location is just the beginning.

“We found the model to be profitable and be successful. North Dakota is kind of the last frontier. It’s very spread out. But with our infrastructure, with the way we already are set, we already have stores in all of those areas that we’re going to be building out in so we’re going to be able to duplicate in some aspects. We have good people throughout the state working for us and we’re just going to utilize their skills to bring this other concept in and help other people to grow.” Rose said.

Providing opportunities to his employees was a point of satisfaction for Rose, who started with Papa John’s as a driver during college before he jumped into ownership at a store in Wisconsin. Rose said he relishes providing similar opportunities to others and presented his partner Mujakovic as an example as he started out as a shift manager and now manages all 17 of their Papa John’s locations.

Minot Popeye’s co-owner Steven Marshall, left, educates Isaac Robinson, a team member, as the restaurant is readied in anticipation of the planned opening on Monday.

“Popeye’s just kind of popped up and we jumped in. It really fit the model. We’re always dying for Popeye’s on the road. We just love the chicken. It all fell together,” Rose said, “On our bone-in chicken, we marinade it for 12 hours. There’s a lot of tender love that goes into it. It takes a little bit longer to get to the fryer. We learned the process and I was really surprised by the intensity of it.”

Rose said the Minot Popeye’s is nearly fully staffed with 30 team members, but the owners were still hunting for new hires as they look ahead to opening another six locations in North Dakota.

“We’re going to be expanding so there’s going to be even more opportunities. We’re going to be going to Dickinson next and Williston after that. That’s why we wanted to do this. We’re not just doing the small scale. We’re going to go in and have fun with it. People want to grow and we want to give them that opportunity,” Rose said.

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