Ten kids, eight convenience stores and one father's dream.
That's the abbreviated version of the story behind Blue Store Chicken, the Baton Rouge fried chicken franchise that has grown its cult following by adding seven new stores since 2016.
Hue Tran, the fifth of 10 siblings, handles the legal and financial operations for all Blue Store locations while keeping her dad's dream alive.
Hue Tran, the fifth of 10 siblings, handles the legal and financial operations for all Blue Store locations.
Tran, now 49, is the child of Ba Nguyen and Mua Phan, who emigrated from Vietnam to Louisiana in 1984. She is one of three girls. Back in 2000, she was 17 years old when her father, Mua Phan, took ownership of Triplet's Food Mart near Southern University at 605 Mills Ave., Baton Rouge.
"Blue Store Chicken is not really my journey," Hue Tran said. "Actually, this is more like my dad's journey."
In order, the Phan siblings are Long Phan, 57, Phung Phan, 55, Trinh Phan, 54, Hue Phan Tran, 49, Hoang Phan, 48, Kiet Phan, 47, Binh Phan, 43, Tuyet Phan, 42, Sang Phan, 40, and Thu Phan, 39.
The first four Phan children finished high school and immediately went to work for the family business. When Tran was in high school, she worked at the food mart every afternoon, along with her other siblings.
The original Triplett’s Blue Store is located on Mills Avenue in Baton Rouge.
She took her shifts working as a cashier, stocking shelves and cleaning.
Tran says the work was rough and that her older siblings understood that their parents were working to save money to send the younger children to college — a debt she continues to try to repay all these years later.
When it came time for her to pick a career after high school, the fifth Phan child was conflicted. Her dad wanted her to become a doctor.
"I said, 'That's impossible,'" Tran said.
Still, she went to school in New York to become a physician assistant. After years of higher education and four months into her clinicals, she decided medicine wasn't for her — and she went back to school to become a certified public accountant.
An employee prepares a tray of fried chicken wings at Blue Store Chicken on Staring Lane.
She was working as a CPA when her dad became ill with liver cancer. Tran often returned home to Baton Rouge to take him to doctor's appointments. One day, when he was set to go in for a major procedure, the father and daughter had a pivotal conversation.
"I asked him, 'What would you like me to do if you're not here anymore?' He told me that his dream was to make sure that each one of his kids had at least one business of their own and to be stable," Tran said.
Mua Phan died in 2012.
To honor her father's memory, in 2015, Tran moved home to Louisiana to assemble a business plan and expand Blue Store Chicken.
"I wanted to see if we could do this," she said.
The original Triplett’s Blue Store is shown on May 27 in Baton Rouge.
The beginnings of Blue Store Chicken
In 2000, Mua Phan took over the light blue and yellow convenience store less than a mile away from Southern University in north Baton Rouge. Back then, he sold the usual convenience store fare — snacks, drinks, alcohol, hot dogs, nachos and tobacco products. Then, the market got competitive.
"We had so many convenience stores on every single corner back then, and it seemed like we weren't making the sales," Tran said.
Tran says her father recognized he couldn't make ends meet raising 10 kids by "just selling groceries, beer and cigarettes."
To set himself apart from his competitors, Mua Phan consulted Triplet's previous owner to see what food products would do well. In a strange twist of fate, even though the store's previous owner still plays a role in their lives — both in the name of their business and what the business came to be known for — no one in the Phan family can remember the owner's name.
Cashier Deonshae Matthews shows off a plate of fresh chicken wings at the original Triplett’s Blue Store on Mills Avenue in Baton Rouge.
"He told him that if he did start selling food, people from the South love fried chicken," Tran said.
While the kitchen didn't include much room for a restaurant-quality operation, it did have two small deep fryers. Her father kept it simple and stuck to selling chicken wings in 2003. Son Binh Phan is now the owner of the original location and says that no one in the Phan family knew how to fry chicken back then.
The former store owner taught them how to cook and run the store.
In 2005, business began to pick up.
"It took about two years for people to start coming in and trying it," Tran said of the fried chicken.
Does anyone else notice that the route to each of the eight Blue Store Chicken is in the shape of a chicken?
When people tried it, they loved it — with good reason.
The fried chicken, the wings, in particular, hits all the marks. The first thing most people notice is how hot the chicken is. After one bite, customers note that it's crispy and moist. Then, the layers of flavor come in. The chicken has just the right hint of spice.
Soon enough, lines formed outside the door at Triplet's Food Mart.
Why 'Blue Store,' and who is 'Triplet?'
Binh Phan explained that the store's name was set when his dad bought the store. His sister, Tran, said that the original owner may have had a daughter who gave birth to triplets, thus naming the store "Triplet's Food Mart."
Then, their mother, Ba Nguyen Phan, painted the entire store blue when she found a few gallons of discounted paint at Home Depot.
She wasn't aware of the Jaguars' theme colors — that just happened to be the paint that was on sale. Out of convenience, customers started to call it "The Blue Store."
This Triplet's Blue Store is located at 5605 Jones Creek Road in Baton Rouge.
Southern University students would visit the store during lunch hours to order wings, potato logs and soda. On Sundays, people from church would stop by and order large quantities of wings.
Customers started spreading the word, particularly on social media.
The original Blue Store near Southern University laid the foundation for the business' growth and the eventual following of its fried chicken.
Four years after their father's death, in 2016, the Phan family opened the second Triplet's Blue Store at 12222 Plank Road.
A year later, Triplet's Blue Store II popped up at 2321 Highland Road.
A year after that, in 2018, Blue Store Chicken opened at 13770 Old Hammond Highway.
"Blue Store Chicken" became the family name.
"Our legacy began the day we bought the store," Binh Phan said in an email. "We are a part of the community."
Chicken so good, he asked for a job
Continuing her father's dream, Tran persists in opening new Blue Store Chicken locations in Baton Rouge. To date, eight Phan children operate their own individual stores, but their sister finds the location, handles the hiring of employees, handles the legal and tax operations and sets up her siblings for success.
"When I get everything ready, all they do is just walk in and run it," Tran said.
The separate ownership is evident, as each location varies slightly from the next with different menu items, prices and hours. Even the store names are slightly different — some still include "Triplet's" and some don't.
Little things are also different, like the Blue Store Chicken at Old Hammond Highway, which has a fountain drink machine and two cocktail tables for seating. The one at 5454 Bluebonnet Blvd. is walk-in/walk-out service with no seating. The newest store at 879 Staring Lane has a large space for seating and a drive-thru. The Triplet's Blue Store at 5605 Jones Creek Road offers drink coolers and dessert.
Another Blue Store Chicken is located at 13770 Old Hammond Highway in Baton Rouge.
At Triplet's Blue Store Chicken on Bluebonnet Boulevard, one wing is $1.09 and a small fried rice is $2.99. Blue Store Chicken on Staring Lane sells one wing for $1.49, and a small fried rice is $3.99. Even the chicken logo graphics are unique at each location.
By Western standards, the overall business plan is murky, and each sibling is hesitant to talk much about the way the stores are run.
Thu Phan, who operates Triplet's Blue Store Chicken on Bluebonnet Boulevard, would not agree to be interviewed. In a polite text, he said, "Thank you for your interest but sorry, we do not like to do interviews at this location. Each location is run by a separate member of our family and everyone has their own preferences."
Fried chicken wings from Triplet's Blue Store Chicken at 5454 Bluebonnet Blvd. in Baton Rouge.
Further pressed and after a compliment to his chicken, Thu Phan replied by text, "Thank you very much! We like to let our food speak for itself."
Tran said it's a challenge for the siblings to get on the same page, as each person has a different vision for operating their business.
The public doesn't seem to mind the Phan family approach to business. On any given day, every location sees a revolving door of customers. Some people are placing 50-wing catering orders while others are stopping in for lunch. While most people are there for the chicken, some customers rave about the potato logs, fried rice or meat pies.
Shawn Steward is an employee at the newest Blue Store Chicken at 879 Staring Lane in Baton Rouge.
Shawn Steward, an employee at Blue Store Chicken on Staring, asked for a job as soon as he smelled the inside of the store.
"I went up to the window," Steward said. "I ordered some chicken. It was so good, I said, 'Man, are y'all hiring?'"
Bridgett Dunn, an employee of three years at Blue Store Chicken on Old Hammond Highway, said the business has some of the best fried chicken.
"I tell people when they come for the first time, 'I'll see you again,'" Dunn said.
A formula for growth
Many of the Blue Store Chicken locations have myriad food options, from chicken wings, thighs, breasts and tenders, to fish strips, shrimp, red beans, salad, turkey wings, nachos and crawfish boudin.
So, what makes the chicken in particular stand out?
All of the Phan family members are familiar with the recipe for fried chicken. Binh Phan said the recipe requires a blend of common spices, measured and blended into a specific, secret formula.
Cooked chicken rests on display behind the front counter at Blue Store Chicken on Staring Lane.
"What makes it special is how we prep our chicken, and how we cook," Binh Phan wrote. "It is the process that makes it great. Frying chicken takes skills."
As Blue Store Chicken grows, the family trains new employees on the cooking process.
"We rely on the cook’s experience on frying for it to be perfect," he wrote. "It will not be as perfect as when our father cooked, but the flavors are all there."
For her next chicken chess move, Tran wants to take Blue Store Chicken nationwide with locations first in New Orleans and Lafayette and then in Mississippi, Florida or Texas. She's still working to continue her dad's legacy and helping the last two siblings own a store.
"There are eight total stores, so we need two more," Tran said. "Most of my siblings say that if I'm here and on their side, they know that they can't fail."
Features editor Jan Risher contributed to this report.