---
title: "Restaurant Business: Atomic Wings Joins the Drive-Thru Evolution"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/7d4d6e50-8cf6-4f10-8cc4-757c0d1000a6
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/restaurant-business-atomic-wings-joins-the-drive-thru-evolution-2718482
category: "Chicken"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Chicken"
topics: ["Development & multi-unit","Operations"]
published: 2022-04-19T21:16:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:12:40.291Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/1a551365b7fc8b7348e50f00b0cd76cd4642.jpg
---

# Restaurant Business: Atomic Wings Joins the Drive-Thru Evolution

**TL;DR:** Atomic Wings has opened its first drive-thru location in Maryland, adapting to changing consumer preferences. The 12-unit chicken wing concept has invested in new equipment and developed new procedures to reduce wait times.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2022-04-19. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/restaurant-business-atomic-wings-joins-the-drive-thru-evolution-2718482).*

## Story

In a recent article with Restaurant Business, Zak Omar, CEO of the 12-unit chicken wing concept Atomic Wings, discusses the opening of its first drive-thru location in Maryland.

Without question, the biggest recent change to the fast-casual operating model has been the drive-thru. Fast-casual chains from Shake Shack to Fuzzy’s Taco Shop to Juice It Up! have either opened their first drive-thrus in recent months or announced plans to do so. Atomic Wings has found they need to hop on this bandwagon as its business has decreased without doing so.

“The lobbies have gotten more and more empty,” said Zak Omar, CEO of 11-unit Atomic Wings. “Customers aren’t coming into lobbies anymore … It just seems that’s the path America is going on.”

Omar’s concept is known for its fresh, never frozen, hand-cut and hand-breaded wings, which typically take eight to 12 minutes to cook and serve. But Atomic Wings has invested in new equipment and developed new procedures that will slash wait times to a drive-thru-friendly 90 seconds.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- unit expansion (topic)
- Restaurant Business (publication)
- Maryland (location)
- Shake Shack (company)
- Fuzzy's Taco Shop (company)
- Juice It Up! (company)
- Atomic Wings (company)
- Zak Omar (person)
- menu adaptation (topic)
- drive-thru evolution (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/restaurant-business-atomic-wings-joins-the-drive-thru-evolution-2718482). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/7d4d6e50-8cf6-4f10-8cc4-757c0d1000a6).