Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles to Bring Soul Food to the Hughes Center

After four years on the westside, Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles and its self-described “scratch-made soul food favorites,” is headed east, moving into a very prominent vacant space on the Hughes Center’s Restaurant Row.

Recently filing paperwork to remodel the lighting and seating layout, the franchise created by Larry “Lolo” White will move into a 4,000-sqaure-foot corner space at 325 Hughes Center Drive, empty since Bandito Latin Kitchen & Cantina shuttered in May 2019.

Framed with 30-foot tall glass windows, the light-filled main dining room originally included a central bar. Current paperwork indicates the new tenant improvements will not include a huge interior overhaul, but an estimated opening date has not been announced,

Still open at the Best of the West shopping center on Rainbow Boulevard, Phoenix-born Lo-Lo’s has become a magnet for celebrity customers at its Arizona and Texas restaurants, including Chris Rock, Shaquille O’Neal, and Muhammad Ali during the last two decades.

On the menu, “hood classics,” chicken gizzards and rice, shrimp and grits, blackened catfish, smothered chicken, banana pudding, and the famed namesake dish, all served in an environment Larry White calls, “laid-back, no-frills.”

• Founder Larry White Takes Over, Reboots Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles [ELV]

• All Coverage of Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles [ELV]