Bay Area food truck opening new Clovis restaurant. It sells top Yelp-ranked sandwiches
A Bay Area food truck specializing in spicy chicken sandwiches is opening its first restaurant – in Clovis.
The CHICK N’ BROS grand opening is at 11 a.m. Friday at 393 W. Shaw Ave. suite A-14, near Peach Avenue and in front of Walmart.
The business has been selling its sandwiches at two food trucks in the Bay Area, with one often parking near Santana Row in San Jose.
Its chicken sandwich ranked No. 4 on restaurant review site Yelp.com’s list of Top 50 Fried Chicken Sandwiches in California last year.
The buttermilk-battered fried halal chicken comes in sandwiches with a brioche bun with options like pickles, honey, and spicy adobo aioli “bro sauce.” One sandwich on the menu is dubbed the “Chick Norris.”
Prices range from $12.95 to $15.95.
CHICK N’ BROS fried chicken was inspired by a trip to South Korea, where they learned using potato starch in the batter makes it extra crunchy. The menu is bigger than on the trucks, with chicken strips, slushies and more.
How spicy is it?
But so much of this place is about the heat.
You can pick how hot you want your sandwich (including not spicy at all).
The dry rub-style spices made from chile peppers are what gives the sandwiches their heat. Options run from No. 1 through 5, starting at cayenne and working up to ghost pepper, Trinidad scorpion peppers, and topping out at the spiciest, made from a Carolina reaper pepper.
How serious are they about the spiciness?
Their menu has each spice measured in Scoville heat units, the official scale of spiciness. The cayenne measures in at about 45,000, for example, with the Carolina reaper (the hottest pepper in existence) here clocking in at about 1.6 million Scoville heat units.
The owners made a name for themselves by posting “fire challenges” on their Instagram account. That’s where (after signing a waiver) a customer has 10 minutes to finish a ridiculously spicy sandwich – with no water – and wins $400 or $500 if they do. Spoiler alert: Many don’t.
A few of those challenges will be happening at the grand opening, they say.
So many chicken restaurants
CHICK N’ BROS gets its name from the owners. The “chick” in the business is Tina Nguyen, who handles payroll and other back-end tasks. The “bros” are Tony Truong and and Adam Wardack, who handle the food side of things.
They join a long list of chicken places in Fresno and Clovis, like restaurants Angry Chickz, Raising Cane’s, The Chicken Shack and Pacific Fried Chicken Company, to food trucks like FURY Hot Chicken and Spicy Birdz (which now has a brick-and-mortar location).
Details: CHICK N’ BROS is at 393 W. Shaw Ave., suite A-14. Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
