Last week a new spot for fried chicken quietly sprouted up inside Chef’s Hall on Richmond, and you’re going to want to check it out.
Grateful Chicken is serving up sammies, buckets and even champagne combos with the signature fried chicken of legendary Toronto chef Brandon Olsen. Olsen is adventurous and entrepreneurial, with a resume spanning some of Toronto’s favourite restaurants and dishes over the past ten years, from Bar Isabel to La Banane to the colourful marbled chocolate delights from CXBO Chocolates.
Olsen’s no stranger to fried chicken either, with his signature Brando’s Fried Chicken gracing tables across the city with physical and virtual pop-ups, on Uber Eats, and through special events at La Banane. Brando’s Fried Chicken gained cult-like popularity among those in the know, with fans clamouring to know when the next time they could get their hands on some would be.
The perfect balance of juicy-on-the-inside, crispy-on-the-outside, Brando’s Fried Chicken has been described as the best fried chicken in Toronto. Now, Olsen is stepping back into the fried chicken game with Grateful Chicken. Chef’s Hall, the community marketspace where Grateful Chicken is operating, says to, “Imagine the Grateful Dead and Keith Haring sharing a bucket of fried chicken.”
The menu at Grateful Chicken is simple but effective, sticking to the basics and letting the mouth-watering fried chicken speak for itself. The chicken comes in three, five or 10 piece buckets or on a potato bun with buttermilk coleslaw and Franks’ Red Hot sauce. There’s also a “chicken fried” mushroom sammy on offer, which swaps out the chicken for hen-of-the-woods mushrooms. If you want to make it a combo, there’s a handful of sides and drinks to choose from and even the option to pair some champagne with your chicken, making for the perfect decadent meal to enjoy on the Chef’s Hall patio this summer.
Grateful Chicken is open Tuesdays Through Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m., in the Vendor Hall at Chef’s Hall at 111 Richmond Street West.
