Tennessee
Central American chicken chain plans Tennessee expansion
Pollo Campero, a fried chicken restaurant that began in Guatemala, has plans to expand across Tennessee. The fast food chain, whose menus include empanadas, yuca fries and plantains, already has locations in Nashville and Madison with a third opening this spring in Smyrna.
The company is seeking new franchise partners to grow in Middle Tennessee and add restaurants in the Memphis and Knoxville areas.
“The state has really attracted a lot of people from all over the U.S. And then we also saw that the Central American population had been increasing over the last 20 years,” said Blas Escarcega, Pollo Campero’s director of franchise development.
The first Pollo Campero opened in Gualtamela in 1971. The company brought its Central American flavors to the U.S. in 2002 with a location in Los Angeles, which is still open.
Pollo Campero now has 93 locations across the U.S. with plans to add 200 more over the next five years. The chain also has locations throughtout Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East.
Currently, only 15 of those Pollo Campero restaurants in the U.S. are franchises. The company hopes to increase the percentage of franchised locations. The growth in Tennessee will be through franchises, officials said.
The Nashville-area franchisee learned about Pollo Campero from their own workers who were Central American immigrants. While the chain targets states and neighborhoods with Latin American immigrant populations, it also wants to find more customers among other groups.
“We realize there’s only so many immigrants that can support it,” Escarcega said.
Todd A. Price is a regional report in the South for the USA Today Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – We’re experiencing our hottest weather since summer 2025.
The hottest weather of the year is having a major impact on Middle Tennesseans. Temperatures have soared well above average during the afternoon and remained unusually high at night for several days. That’s caused thousands across Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky to temporarily change the way they go about everyday life. The heat has been so significant that temperatures have actually been in record territory.
For example, this past Sunday, Nashville nearly tied the highest minimum temperature ever for the date — 80° set in 1936. Nashville’s low on Sunday was 79.
As for high temperatures, while it was easily the hottest day of the year on Tuesday, Nashville missed that day’s record by nine degrees.
We’ll be closer on Wednesday, missing it by just six degrees.
There’s an even closer approach in line for Thursday. Our forecast for Nashville is 98°. The record high temperature is 101.
Cooler weather will eventually take over. By early next week, we expect highs to return to more seasonable levels — the low 90s.
For life-saving weather alerts, customized messages on conditions and forecasts, and videos detailing upcoming weather events, download the WSMV 4 First Alert Weather app for iPhone or Android. Have weather pictures or videos? Share them here.
Former Tennessee baseball pitcher Garrett Stallings was called up by the Milwaukee Brewers on June 30.
Stallings, 28, likely will make his major league debut against the Cincinnati Reds on June 30 in the second game of the Brewers’ four-game homestand.
Stallings played at Tennessee from 2017 to 2019 in the early years of Tony Vitello’s stint at the Vols’ head coach. He earned a starting role as a freshman and became the ace by his junior season.
In 2019, the Los Angeles Angels selected Stallings in the fifth round of the MLB draft. He bounced around in the minors before landing firmly in Triple-A with the Norfolk Tides, and later the Brewers’ affiliate Nashville Sounds, in 2024.
Stallings posted a 3-3 record with the Sounds in 2026 with a 3.45 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 62⅔ innings.
He will be the 54th player in Tennessee history to reach the major leagues and the 12th since 2020. He will join left-hander Garrett Crochet (2020); right-hander Ben Joyce (2023); infielder Andre Lipcius (2023); IF Trey Lipscomb (2024); outfielder Jordan Beck (2024); RHP Seth Halvorsen (2024); RHP Chase Dollander (2025); RHP Blade Tidwell (2025); INF Christian Moore (2025); OF Drew Gilbert (2025); and RHP Chad Dallas (2026).
Dallas made his debut for the Toronto Blue Jays on June 4.
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email: wynton.jackson@knoxnews.com
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