New AQ Chicken House won’t open in 2025 as planned
by July 9, 2025 11:07 am 9,127 views
Computer rendering of planned new AQ Chicken House restaurant in Springdale. The plan is now on hold, and the facility in this rendering is not likely to be built.
The family behind the new AQ Chicken House in Springdale has delayed the opening of the new restaurant. The delay was attributed to rising construction and materials costs, but the plan is to keep the restaurant in Springdale.
In September 2023, Catalyst Capital, a single-family office organized in 2023 by Springdale’s Lundstrum family, closed a deal to buy the rights to the restaurant’s name, recipes and branding. Catalyst Capital comprises four principals: Tom and Robin Lundstrum, their daughter Gracie Lively, and her husband, Jacob Lively.
On Wednesday (July 9), the Lively family posted to social media a video about delaying the restaurant opening without providing a new opening date.
“Will AQ open this year? ‘No,’” Gracie Lively said. “It won’t open in 2025, and no, we don’t have a new date yet.”
“But we are still moving forward behind the scenes every week refining ideas, looking at locations and getting ready to bring AQ back,” Jacob Lively said.
He said Sunday night dinner at the Lundstrum household has become a “family affair of the AQ test chicken – taste-testing roll recipes, tweaking the seasoning, chasing that original AQ flavor.”
He said the “beautiful plan” to open a 13,041-square-foot restaurant along Interstate 49 at the Elm Springs Road exit in west Springdale wasn’t “financially realistic.”
According to the restaurant’s social media post, “rising construction and material costs made our previously announced site off Elm Springs Road unfeasible… We’re actively working to secure a new location in the heart of Springdale and remain committed to bringing AQ back the right way.”
Jacob Lively said the family looked at moving AQ to another city, “but we kept coming back to this: AQ belongs in Springdale, full stop.”
“We’re committed to building something that’s family-friendly, rooted in tradition and that truly feels like AQ again,” Gracie Lively said.