A former PDQ in Lakewood Ranch is about to become something both familiar and slightly more unhinged: another chicken-tender restaurant, this time with KFC behind it and sauce treated less like a sideliner than a main squeeze.

Saucy! by KFC, a fast-food spinoff built around chicken tenders, sauces and build-your-own flavor combinations, opens today at 5484 Lena Road. The restaurant will take over a space once occupied by PDQ, the Tampa-born chicken chain that also built its reputation around tenders. In that way it’s more of a personality transplant than a category change. One chicken shop out, another chicken shop in, now with brighter branding and a larger commitment to dipping.

The Lakewood Ranch restaurant is part of a Tampa Bay-area push for Saucy! By KFC. A second new location opens Tuesday, May 5, at 3154 Disciple Lane in Trinity, also in a former PDQ. Together, the Manatee and Pasco county openings will become Saucy!’s fifth and sixth Tampa-area locations this year, joining four restaurants already open in Tampa. 

Saucy! made its national debut in Orlando in December 2024, giving KFC a younger, louder offshoot centered not on buckets or family meals, but on tenders, customization and sauces. Yum Brands, its parent company, acquired 13 former PDQ leases in Florida in 2025, with sites on the Gulf Coast, in North Florida and in Central Florida intended for future development. 

That lease deal gives the Lakewood Ranch opening a little restaurant-industry drama beneath the pink-and-orange sheen. The menu is built around chicken tenders as the base for nearly everything else. Guests can order them as-is, on a sandwich, in a tortilla or in a rice bowl, then add from a sauce lineup that includes options such as classic BBQ, sweet teriyaki and jalapeño pesto ranch. The concept launched with 11 sauces, a nod to KFC’s 11 herbs and spices. The rest of the menu includes items like sauced Brussels sprouts bites, macaroni and cheese, fries, Hawaiian toast and “puffies,” sugar-dusted pastries served with raspberry, chocolate or caramel sauce. 

The Lakewood Ranch grand opening begins at 11 a.m. with giveaways and complimentary bites while supplies last. Guests will also get an early taste of Saucy Drips by Pepsi, a line of “mood-inspired” fountain drinks being launched at Saucy! locations. 

For Manatee County, the opening adds another national brand to the busy Lena Road corridor near Lakewood Ranch, where restaurant chains have continued to follow residential growth and commuter traffic.  

Saucy! by KFC opens Monday, May 4, is located at, 5484 Lena Road, Bradenton.