The Chickens Have Hatched

When you’ve done well in the street food game – really, really well – the chance to take what you do off the street and into a permanent home is how you really plant your flag in the earth. Just ask this year’s BSFA winners Baked In Brick.

London has yet another reason to smile because, finally, for Broadway Market stalwarts Butchies, those days are here. They’ve now got their own permanent place – called Hatch – right in the thick of it, in Camden Market. There are some GREAT chicken joints on the streets of the UK (including BSF favourites Spit and Roast, Mother Clucker, Lola’s, Jenny’s, Dirty Bird etc) but this is what the people of London have been crying out for.

Last year, Butchies were rated in the top three London street food traders by Time Out readers. (Agree? Disagree? Then shout it out via our app). A full on bricks and mortar place means their legacy is better established. And Londoners get a better share of the good stuff.

For those not yet privy to Butchies’ bordering-on-legendary fried chicken sandwiches, let us fill you in. Firstly, that paper-dry meat you see in highstreet chicken shops? None of that here – these guys claim to be the only traders in the UK to use a special US-imported pressure fryer which, in plain English, helps retain moisture in the chicken. Which, in even plainer English, leaves you with a juicer piece of meat.

Add this to the care they put into their ingredients (butter-toasted buns, red Leicester cheese dripping, and garlic and fresh herb aioli, anyone?) and their high welfare, ‘slow-reared’ chickens (exec chef Garret Fizgerald has a Masters in sustainability), and you’ll start to see where all the hype is coming from.

We’ve said it before – London has some incredible pedigree. But when you’re able to set up your own full residence with all the frills? That’s when you know you’re among the best of the best. Just like the other traders who’ve been or are going to the same street food nirvana – the Smokestaks, the Pitt Cues, the Wahacas, of this world.