Fried chicken concept from Los Angeles lands in Midwest
Lucky Bird and its popular fried chicken debuted in Chicago in late September thanks to a partnership with Epic Kitchens. The popular, Los Angeles-born Fried Chicken Buckets and sandwiches made their way from Grand Central Station in the City of Angels to the heart of Chicago. Lucky Bird Chicago’s menu includes chicken, sides and beverages that will now be available on third-party apps and at epickitchens.com.
Customers can also order main dishes. Popcorn Chicken is served with a smoked paprika dipping sauce; and Fried Sandwiches feature a chicken thigh with homemade pickles, smoked paprika aioli & butter lettuce on a milk bun. Jojo’s pressured fried potato wedges and Yukon potato salad are featured sides popular on the menu.
Focusing on scratch-prepared meals, Chef Chris Dane launched the Lucky Bird concept in Los Angeles in 2018. Its expansion in Chicago with ghost kitchens paves the way for introducing its fare during lunch and dinner to customers in a new geography. For food from Lucky Bird Chicago offers delivery from DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Caviar, and Postmates, in addition to epickitchens.com.
“We couldn’t be happier to be opening in Chicago. Being able to share fried chicken with people from all over was always one of the main driving factors in opening Lucky Bird, and having our first location outside of Los Angeles be Chicago makes total sense because Chicago is a food Mecca for many with countless great restaurants, so we hope the people of Chicago will open their arms to one more,” said Dane.
Restaurants and investors continue to embrace the ghost kitchen business model and have their sights set on major urban markets. Zuul Kitchens ($9M) and Butler Hospitality ($15M) are two regional players in New York City that have raised financing this year to expand in the market. Last year, Kitchen United raised $40M to also expand in New York.
Photo credit: Lucky Bird (featured preview image)
About the publisher of this restaurant news site.