Last year, Kentish Town's food offering got a big shot in the arm with the arrival of the Chicken Shop/Pizza East/Dirty Burger triumverate, and since then the area's steadily had an influx of great food destinations. Now an old London favourite has settled into the area too to provide direct competition to Chicken Shop.
Lucky Chip has just started a long-term residency at the very recently revamped Grafton pub on Prince of Wales Road. But this time they're doing things a little differently, swapping burgers for fried chicken to launch "Lucky Fried Chicken". The menu itself looks familiar to anyone who has come actoss a certain colonel's enterprise, but the food has a Lucky Chip stamp all over it. It's the first of many menus by Lucky Chip at the Grafton - with a possibility of burgers coming later.
As for the food... for individual orders there are boxes - served with creamed potatoes, gravy, slaw and hot rolls - with two pieces of chicken for £7.50 (but no slaw), three for £9.50 and five for £11.50. If you're in the sharing mood, there are bigger boxes of nine pieces (£19.50) a bucket of 15 (£28.50) or a huge barrel of 28 (£38).
Alternatively there's a barbecue sandwich for £8.50 or a chicken, cheese, bacon & tomato sandwich for £10 and Wednesday specials of chicken livers and chicken gizzards for the brave (£4.50). Add to this sides of fries, rolls, gravy, slaw, beans and salad - plus cherry or apple pie for dessert and you have a southern fried chicken joint that's worth crossing town for. We'll be popping in soon and will share pics on Twitter, but in the meantime we caught up with Susie Clarke from the Grafton to find out a little more about the whole endeavour.
How did the teaming up with Lucky Chip come about?
Joel (Czopor - co owner of the Grafton) and I began running Street Food Takeovers every Friday night soon after we opened late last year. This seemed to resonate with our customers immediately and took off for us in a big way. Street Food vendors were clamouring to run pop-ups with us and punters loved the fare on offer and came from far and wide.
Suddenly we found ourselves a fixture on the London food scene, so we soon came to Lucky Chip's attention. We'd been looking for a new permanent direction for our food offer and Lucky Chip were already in search of their third residency, so as soon as we met it seemed the perfect union.
And you've further plans for upstairs?
To coincide with the launch of Lucky Chip at The Grafton, we've redeveloped our first floor to add in a second bar. That's two floors of fun! I can't share pictures of it with you unfortunately as the guys are still in there painting, but I promise it's going to be gorgeous when it's finished, very slick and grown-up with lots more of our signature tiling, low lighting, intimate booths, candlelight and a fully-stocked bar. We're also due to launch a bespoke cocktail menu available only from upstairs.
Lucky Chip's Lucky Fried Chicken has opened at the Grafton in Kentish Town at 20 Prince of Wales Road, London, NW5 3LG. They'll be there every lunchtime (12-3/3.30 and Sundays 12-6pm) and evenings Monday - Saturday (5.30 - 10/11pm)
