Chicken Fire (Instagram | Facebook), Kwame Boakye's Nashville hot chicken concept, will open in the space at 2425 E. Colonial Drive recently vacated by Fratello's in the Coytown Shopping Center, and it could open as early as next month.
We've been anticipating Chicken Fire's brick-and-mortar location for a while now, and I can only take this news — along with the recent expansion announcements of Black Rooster Taqueria, Hunger Street Tacos and Winter Park Biscuit Company — as a sign that the 2020 shitshow is ending its ruinous run.
If you haven't yet tried Boakye's chicken, and are wondering what the fuss is about, perhaps an excerpt from this summer's review will clue you in:
"And the chicken is fire. Absolute fire. This kid from Akron with Ghanaian roots spent months perfecting his recipe, and a purist one at that. It has, evidently, impressed visiting and expat Nashvillians alike, and well it should – Boakye procures his chicken from Prestige Farms in North Carolina, brines it, batters it, fries it, then tosses it in a hot oil glaze peppered with a secret blend of spices of which cayenne and brown sugar are the most discernible. And this being Nashville hot chicken, even the "mild" is anointed in demon lube."
And this:
"...I ordered my tenders "hot x2" (translation: "hot hot") which is one notch below their hottest offering, "hot infinity" (translation: poof!). One bite was all it took for my scalp to transform into a water sprinkler."
I'm hoping Boakye will incorporate his Ghanaian roots into Chicken Fire's menu — perhaps serve it with jollof rice punched with scotch bonnets.
If there's one thing Boakye has no fear of, it's adding fuel to the fire.
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