The chain currently has 389 restaurants, mostly in California, as well as Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Georgia, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The company operates 159 units and the rest are franchised.

The company statement did not say how many locations it plans to open as a result of the Freeman investment. Earlier this month El Pollo Loco opened its fifth Georgia location, and management says it plans to open 50 units in the Atlanta area alone.

In a GSR interview early this year , company CEO Steve Carley said that the chain plans to open 40 new restaurants in 2008 and 150 over the next five years. "We're successfully finding franchise partners across the country who have extraordinary depths of experience operationally, in construction and in real estate development," he said at the time.