Mr. Shrimp’s Kitchen is known for (you guessed it) shrimp. Ba Chi Canteen, meanwhile, has the Vietnamese word for pork belly in its name, and all over its menu.
But this week it's fried chicken that occupies the creative energy, competitive vigor and logistical planning at both restaurants.
They are two among dozens of food vendors for this year's National Fried Chicken festival, who are all out to feed the crowds and to vie for coveted best-of-fest awards in a chicken-loving region.
Festgoers cool off by a choppy Lake Pontchartrain during the National Fried Chicken Festival on the Lake Pontchartrain lakefront in New Orleans. (Photo by Scott Threlkeld, The Times-Picayune)
The National Fried Chicken Festival returns Oct. 5 and 6 on the New Orleans lakefront (see details below). It brings many different takes on fried chicken, and this year a new way to sample more of it with smaller portion options and sampler platters on the vendors’ menus.
Defending champs, new contenders
The appeal of fried chicken cuts across foodways from around the country and around the globe, from Korea to the Caribbean. All of that plays out again at this year’s festival.
The fried chicken at Red Bird has a crisp crust and either a mild or hot spice level.
In 2023, Red Bird Fried Chicken won the award for best fried chicken for its traditional presentation, while the Vietnamese restaurant Bao Mi won for best use of chicken in a dish, a category that gets creative, for Korean fried chicken bao. Both are back in 2024 to defend their festival titles.
The KFC bao with fried chicken pieces and aioli in steamed buns at Bao Mi in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Roughly 40 vendors are taking part this year, including many first-time vendors. They’re coming in hot.
“My name’s about to change, they’re going to call me Mr. Chicken after this,” said Larry “Mr. Shrimp” Thompson, who made his name on boiled seafood at pop-ups before opening his food court restaurant in the Riverwalk Mall last year.
Larry Thompson Jr., aka Mr. Shrimp, dancing and singing at his cooks during lunchtime at Mr. Shrimp's Kitchen in the food court inside the Riverwalk in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Mr. Shrimp is serving wings with its own proprietary sauce. Ba Chi Canteen went a different direction, with a trio of different chicken-stuffed fried egg rolls, a flex on a Vietnamese staple.
“We’re going a little out of the box, there will be a lot of wings and sandwiches, so we’re giving them something different and new,” said Phat Vu, co-founder of Ba Chi Canteen, which relocated to Metairie last year. “It’s good exposure for us to be the festival and we have fun out there, and, yeah, it might be that competitive thing too.”
Locals and visiting chicken
LUFU NOLA, the downtown Indian restaurant, has been a festival phenom, racking up awards at other events. It will be a Fried Chicken Festival vendor for the first time with a fried butter chicken, a take on the Indian classic, among other dishes.
At LUFU Indian Kitchen and Bar the chefs (from left) Sachin Darade, Aman Kota and Sarthak Samantray serve dishes from their respective regions of India. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Some well-known local names returning include Chubbie's Fried Chicken, a long-time Algiers favorite, the food truck Bonafried (a past festival winner), Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken (a Memphis brand with a downtown outpost), Tiger's Creole Cuisine, Diva Dawg food truck and Fatty's Cracklin', a former Jazz Fest vendor, bringing fried chicken cracklin'.
Fried chicken is part of the plate lunch menu most days at Chicken's Kitchen in Gretna. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
And the two finalists in the NOLA.com online voting bracket for best fried chicken will be there too: Chicken's Kitchen in Gretna returning again and Picnic Provisions & Whiskey, making its debut with its crawfish boil fried chicken.
Other vendors are traveling from around the country to take part. Grippy’s Sauce Co., another new vendor, is a restaurant outside of Cleveland, Ohio, and Eugene’s Hot Chicken, an operation based in Birmingham, Alabama is back this year too. Bun B, the Houston rapper known for his Trill Burgers smashburgers, is using the festival to debut a new chicken strip.
Diverse by design
The National Fried Chicken Festival made the USA Today Readers’ Choice list of best specialty food festivals earlier this year, coming in at No. 6.
Reinhard Pufahl and Victoria Biewer work the stand from Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken at the Fried Chicken Festival?on the New Orleans lakefront.
Tina Dixon, food and beverage program director for the festival, said that’s spurred more inquiries from prospective vendors from a wider swath of the country and even from overseas.
“We’ve heard from people in Paris. There could be a day when we have French fried chicken here,” she said.
Oh Taste and See is one of dozens of food vendors at the National Fried Chicken Festival on the New Orleans lakefront. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
But as usual this year, the vendor list is peppered with small operators, including mom-and-pop restaurants, caterers and food trucks, and many are Black-owned businesses.
Fried chicken was paired with bread pudding in rum sauce from New Orleans food vendors Oh Taste and See at the National Fried Chicken Festival. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
That’s the result of an intentional effort by the organization behind the festival to open doors to more small players in the local food scene. Festival founder Cleveland Spears, CEO of the local agency the Spears Group, calls sharing the economic opportunity of the festival "foundational to its mission."
Festival-size tastes, platters
Festgoers line up for food during the fifth annual Fried Chicken Festival on the New Orleans lakefront.
With so many options, festival goers need a strategy to get a broad taste, and this year the festival is encouraging vendors to offer smaller portion options to make it easier for people to sample around. A vendor with a chicken sandwich may offer a slider version or a half sandwich, for instance. Others will have combo platters for a group of friends to try tastes of the entire menu at once.
“We want to make it a dine-around,” said Dixon. “We’re super excited to see everyone’s take this year, and we want people to be able to try a lot of them.”
NEED TO KNOW
National Fried Chicken Festival
When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Oct. 5 and 6
Where: New Orleans Lakefront, along Lakeshore Drive, from Franklin Avenue to the Seabrook Bridge.
What: Live entertainment on four stages, ticketed beer and margarita gardens, a "car corral" of custom vehicles, and kids' activities. A Cane’s block party featuring DJs, games and performances, and Heinz sponsors a "Food is Culture" stage for interviews and demos. Tickets start at $20, free for kids 12 and younger, and ticketed VIP experiences are available. See friedchickenfestival.com.
