If you love chicken nuggets, just know you haven’t had them like this.
Think crispy, hand-breaded nuggets with a flaky crunch, ranging from classic flavors to bacon, Everything Bagel, and even Cap’n Crunch.
The Nugget Spot in Chatham, New Jersey, is turning a childhood favorite into a chef-driven experience. This one-of-a-kind restaurant is dedicated entirely to chicken nuggets—and not the kind you get at fast-food chains. Here, the nuggets are hormone free and coated in house-made seasonings, and paired with one of 12 dipping sauces. It’s comfort food reimagined—it’s familiar but elevated.
Jason Hairston, the founder of the first-ever nugget-focused restaurant, opened The Nugget Spot in 2013 on East 14th Street in New York City with a simple idea: take something everyone loves and make it better. “I got into cooking to work for myself, with the goal of having my name on the menu,” Hairston says. “After doing fine dining for a few years, I realized I needed something scalable. At the time, ‘pink slime’ was in the news. I thought—chicken nuggets are everyone’s favorite food. We need a better one.”
Before opening the restaurant, Hairston honed his skills in renowned kitchens like Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, the TriBeCa Grand Hotel, and Aquagrill. Fine dining taught him technique, flavor, and the value of keeping things simple. He experimented with recipes on friends, family, and at pop-ups, and a Williamsburg hot sauce expo proved that the concept of a chicken nugget restaurant had potential.
From there, he set out to reimagine the nugget. Most people think of frozen fast-food versions, but The Nugget Spot is the opposite: Fresh. The chicken is cut, brined and prepared daily, in-house and perfected through trial and error until the crunch and flavor are just right. They even make house-made lemonade, boba, and blueberry-raspberry drinks. The result is a fun but elevated menu that satisfies both nostalgic cravings and adventurous palates.
For Hairston, comfort food is all about care and quality. “Food stands out when it’s made by people who take pride in what they do, and it’s made fresh with high-quality ingredients,” he says. “That’s what we’re trying to do with nuggets, and I think that’s why people love them. You can’t make a better nugget if you don’t start with better ingredients.”
Since opening in New Jersey, the community has embraced the concept, and it has quickly become a local favorite. “The customers seem to genuinely appreciate the product, and I’m very appreciative of them,” Hairston says.
Hairston has built a workplace where employees enjoy coming in, knowing their effort shapes the product. “If going to work sucks, the product sucks,” he says. “I want The Nugget Spot to be a place employees want to come to as much as the customers.”
That care shows up in every nugget. Between seasonal flavors, in-house sauces, and a team that takes pride in their work, The Nugget Spot has taken something simple and turned it into an experience. It’s proof that chicken nuggets can be fun, inventive, and seriously delicious—no matter your age.
Alondra Cabrera is the Editorial Assistant at New Jersey Digest. She recently graduated from Montclair State University with a degree in Communication and Media Studies. During her time at school, she discovered her passion for journalism and content creation. In her free time, she loves to create and edit videos for her corgis, Rafi and Toffe, and indulge in culinary adventures with her friends. Alondra also enjoys traveling, cooking, and working out. She is excited to embark on her professional journey in media and looks forward to contributing her skill and creativity to her role here at New Jersey Digest.
