South Korean fried chicken franchise Genesis BBQ said Wednesday it recently opened a new restaurant in California in an effort to further penetrate the American market.

Labeled under the franchise’s brand name “bb.q Chicken,” it is its 35th outlet in California. The restaurant is located in a bustling business center called Callens Corner in the Orange County city of Fountain Valley. With schools, hospitals, churches and other public facilities in the area, Callens Corner is a concentrated spot ideally situated for attracting many customers, the franchise said.

Following the establishment of its first American location in the Manhattan borough of New York six years ago, Genesis BBQ has been consistently targeting the American market.

The franchise also said it is accelerating its business expansion further by consecutively opening restaurants whose launches had been on hold during the pandemic. It recently opened its first restaurant in Florida – one of many that are scattered across the country in states such as Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland and Hawaii.

The franchise now runs 250 restaurants in 22 states, and 700 worldwide in 57 countries, including Canada, Japan, Taiwan and Germany.

Bb.q Chicken was also named the second-fastest growing restaurant chain in the US last year in a survey by Nation's Restaurant News, an American publication covering the food service industry.