The chicken craze has made its way to Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon.

Ruffled Feathers restaurant officially opened its doors Feb. 1, filling the onetime Subway location that’s been vacant for a few years. The new hot chicken eatery is near the MEBar and the High Limit Table Room.

“We didn’t want to just offer the space to the highest bidder straight away,” said Simon Farmer, executive director of marketing at Morongo. “We wanted to do a little bit of research and get a good read on what our guests are looking for and what some national trends are, and bringing the hot chicken concept to Morongo is a response to that.”

The restaurant serves two chicken sandwiches for $11.99 each. The Mello Chick is made with a fried chicken breast, sliced dill pickles and coleslaw, and The Hot Chick is a Nashville-hot style chicken breast with sliced dill pickles, housemade ranch dressing and coleslaw. Both sandwiches are served on brioche buns. The menu also offers three- or five-piece plates of tenders served with ranch or barbecue sauce for $12.99-$15.99. Customers can add waffle fries and a medium drink to any sandwich or tenders for $5.99 and try the vanilla, chocolate or strawberry ice cream shakes for $6.99.

Craig Gilbert, the creator of the concept for Ruffled Feathers and the co-founder of Drive This! Entertainment, said the restaurant’s chicken is made with 11 herbs and spices and marinates for 48 hours before it is lightly seasoned and deep-fried.

Chicken sandwiches, in particular, have become such a national trend that quick-service restaurants at one point fought a social media war over them. In 2019, Popeyes released one that prompted Chick-Fil-A to tweet out a message that insinuated it made the original chicken sandwich, causing a social media frenzy of memes and discourse between chains’ Twitter accounts and their fans over who makes the better sandwich. By the end of 2021, at least 20 chain eateries put chicken sandwiches on their menus.

In December, Nation’s Restaurant News, a trade publication, released data that showed Nashville hot, a spicy coating made with hot sauce and cayenne pepper, was trending in popularity along with chicken sandwiches. According to Datassential, the company that compiled the research, restaurant sales of Nashville hot items increased 297% over the previous four years.

“Chicken is having a moment,” Gilbert said. “We’re hoping it’s not a trend, but rather an evolution where chicken is going.”

The restaurant plans to roll out more chicken-focused menu items and additional specials as it settles in.

Ruffled Feathers is open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and 11 a.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, go to morongocasinoresort.com.