Connect
To Top

Meet Ijtihad Muhammad of What The Cluck Wings in Troy

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ijtihad Muhammad.

Ijtihad, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Originally from Willingboro, New Jersey and relocated to Savannah, Georgia, you could say I’m used to feeling like a fish out of water. New locations to live started as something I used to dread and became what I look for out of life. The feeling of knowing absolutely no one and using the advantage of surprise to introduce yourself to your new town the exact way you’d like to be portrayed is a feeling that I started to chase.

In Savannah, it worked like a charm, coming from up north sounding different and looking different, in the beginning, felt like a curse but as I matured, I understood it was a gift. You see, the spotlight is something that is fleeting. On stage you get fifteen minutes, in real life it’s around fifteen days. Once you’re in it, its what you do with it that will turn that temporary limelight into real-life connections and self-definition. What we did was dance. You hear about dance crews on tv and in the movies but you never know anybody from a real one. Me and my brother Bak started this crew in New Jersey but when we moved, we brought the name with us, Unrated Krew.

Young kids dancing in random locations in your city and posting them online with great video editing is enough to be known and respected in the art world. That was the start. Music is what made the difference. Becoming a music artist wasn’t exactly a choice, it just sort of happened. The dance crew turned into a sort of Entertainment Fraternity. We took in anyone with a talent and the swagger to back it up. Unrated Krew became Unrated Ent. made up of Dancers, Rappers, Artists, Producers, etc.. This is where things started to get real. a few short years of fun and a little street fame melded into everyone dealing with real life, but having brothers to help blunt the blows. Until my Grandmother died in 2013, And then one of our Members, Peter Judson, and finally, my Mother.

All within three months. These deaths acted as the milestone that I marked for when things changed. Music being the only thing carrying me at this point and my Father moving back to Philadelphia gave me a sense of freedom, but the lost at sea kind of freedom. Fast-forwarding through all of the obvious mischief an unsupervised kid in his 20s can cause (let’s just say a lot of partying and disorderly house citations), I ended up in Atlanta. I worked the music circuit there for about a year. Gained a lot of performance experience and the Contacts to match. I worked under @HelloBarbie (IG) at her phone repair shop in Midtown (Phone Fancy) and gained a lot of Marketing experience.

I then moved back to Savannah and started a movement called Love Matters, this was in response to the police killings of innocent black citizens. My philosophy was that the only thing that matters is Love, not Black or Blue. This got city-wide coverage on all the news stations, WSAV, WTOC, and a few radio stations, (HISradio). This showed me the power I have when I trust in myself and move forward with conviction, this was in 2016, I felt like I needed to accomplish more in my hometown but God pushed me back to Atlanta.

At this time, I wasn’t even around the music industry, I decided to focus on a new skill and that was Photography, ironically taking pictures of dance competitions. God then did another drastic thing to my life and pushed me to Troy, Alabama. Let’s just say the floor was snatched from under my feet. Living in Troy with my Brother, it was inevitable us landing a position where we would be on display to the whole town. Showing all of the business skills we accumulated over the years through running (ironically) a phone repair shop. Showing our sense of style and being originally from up north but now living in a small Alabama town, it was almost instant automatic exposure to the point where things started to feel a bit like the Truman show.

Through this avenue, the networking bolstered but this time instead of sharing contacts with people just like us climbing the mountain, we were rubbing shoulders with the upper echelon. But this only being because the town is so small. Like Statesboro small. Attracting all this attention and simultaneously saving lives via smartphone repair, an investor came to introduce himself. After a few meetings sifting through business ideas, deciding what would be best for this region, supply, demand and all that, I found myself gearing up to start a restaurant business.

Now aside from the fact that my mother was the best cook in the world, and she actually wrote a cookbook, I never had the desire to open a restaurant. They say you never really choose your path, but your path chooses you. I can say that I’m the example to that statement. Putting the groundwork into this thing wasn’t easy but it wasn’t hard. It actually just felt like a chance to actually use all of the experience I’ve been hoarding. Beginning with marketing and graphic design. A campaign for What The Cluck Wings was underway, one that was so successful, with interaction exceeding anything I could have hoped for. This had me anxious about whether we’d be able to pull this thing off.

The hype I built around it was so crazy, and that whole Fyre festival scandal just made headlines so you could only imagine how I was feeling. I can say I went a little Steve Jobs on my investor, just trying to make sure everything was perfect and to the “T,” we ended up spending anywhere from $70,000-80,000 from start to finish. But the finish was well worth it. The birth of my daughter marked blessed the opening, she was born three days later. Opening week we made $30,000, first month $65,000. ROI like a mother. So now five months in, we’re still here, but the learning curve is tremendous.

Figuring out how to keep this engine going feels like its a 24/7 commitment, much like fatherhood. Now we’re working on expanding, renovating and turning the brand into a multifaceted business model. Hopefully making 2020 a year that marks this decade the same way my daughter birth marked an important milestone for me, the point where I become a man. A young man, being that I’m only 26 years old, but a man all the same.

Has it been a smooth road?
No, it has not been a smooth road. God knows I’ve reached what I thought was my limit a great number of times. The terrain is actually still pretty rough. Imagine being a 19-year-old and losing your mom, your father moves hundreds of miles away leaving you to fend for yourself. Think of all the kids who are 19 and they are either in college or just living at home with mom and dad preparing a plan for how they’re going to go about their lives. Think of the kids who get help acquiring their first car, the kids who get to stay home and save, these kids who get to do college with support behind them.

Now think of the 19-year-old riddled with grief who has to somehow live off of his portion of the life insurance money and face professors day in and day out. I’m sure you can imagine that’s a catalyst to drop out of college. And that’s what I did. I attempted to go back but to no avail. It didn’t seem important. Being young with no supervision or scolding to go home to, I did a fair amount of bouncing around, couch surfing, and city hopping. The last time I made residence in Atlanta, I was pushed to Troy because the person that was helping me get on my feet gave up and said I had to find somewhere else to go. So the first few months in Alabama were hard, getting help where I could find it. That’s until an opportunity came knocking, but the hardship didn’t end there.

Managing a house off of a mere $11/hr didn’t last due to the fact that the owners of the phone repair shop were mismanaging the funds, going on trips every other weekend, exhausting any working capital the business had. This ended with the shop closing and leaving us to figure out a way to stay afloat while the restaurant was still being built. Even after the restaurant opened income wasn’t as expected due to the fact that overhead was scraping $20,000 per month. Soon me and my brother were living out of the car, still managing to smile for everyone and continue to fearlessly tackle this mountain.

Being that my daughter was born in Savannah, I have only been able to see her via FaceTime or the times I can get away to travel to Savannah for a week or two. This has been hard on me the most. But sacrifices must be made in order to live the life you wish to live. Most days I just want to give up just to be with my Daughter and her Mother, but my biggest regret would be that I didn’t try harder. So that’s what I’m doing, working to bridge that gap and bring my family with me on this journey. Because through the glass of a smartphone is no way to raise a child. My brother had the opportunity calling for him back in Savannah so he went to secure it. He is now living well and moving towards his dreams though currently, I am living out of the office being built for the restaurant until I can save enough to start my life with my girls comfortably, and with conviction and a clear mind, it won’t take much longer.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
What The Cluck Wings is a restaurant that specializes in Wings (over 25 different flavors) and Cheesesteaks. We cater to our college crowd the most and we’re known for our special way of marketing ourselves. Via social media the way no other mom and pop restaurant has done it before. We are more focused on the brand as a whole and What The Cluck can be beyond food. We have already been labeled for the best wings in Troy and we strive to exceed the expectations. But to turn this brand into one that can take care of our families, we have to be more than a restaurant.

The fact that we are black-owned has a way of securing support from our people, and we do what we can to earn and keep their trust through presenting ourselves in a way that doesn’t scream “black-owned”. Good food and great marketing have gotten us where we are but the fact that we are unapologetically who we are will take us where we were going. That’s what sets us apart. Instead of pandering to attract customers, I like to instill the philosophy that we should always be ourselves, as long as customer service allows.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Being that we are located in Alabama, I don’t think this question is relevant but I will say that my time in Atlanta has a great deal to do with our look and feel. In Atlanta, everyone loves wings, and this notion is why a small town like Troy with no place to get wings needed us to fill that void. If someone were starting out in Atlanta, I would say listen to the ground and find what’s needed, not what’s cool or trending. Trends always change but once you fill a void, you will always be known as the one who saved the day not just for yourself as a business owner but for your community.

Everyone goes to fashion and music, but no one thinks about the fact that every shirt has buttons and every celebrity wears shirts, so starting a button company will ensure long-lasting success and wealth. I would say think long term… think after your gone, will your business still matter? Which is why my restaurant is constantly evolving in regards to the brand. The restaurant is open, it’ll always be open, but feeding a community doesn’t always have to be with food. People are way more hungry for knowledge. Atlanta is perfect for the entrepreneur though, I say change nothing because the over-saturation forces budding entrepreneurs to think outside the box.

Contact Info:

Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in