Move over KFC and Chick-fil-A, there’s a new chicken joint in town. Juju Bird, located in the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, is officially open and ready for customers. Blon Hang and Yang Hang, brothers and owners of Rak Thai, also located in the Downtown Market, thought the market was missing a certain component.
“Everybody loves chicken,” said Yang. “Chicken is what I eat. After a long day of work, it’s like, ‘let’s make some chicken’. Every culture, every cuisine, has their form of fried chicken. So I thought to myself, ‘what is the market missing?’ Fried chicken. So I built the last component.”
Juju Bird, named after Blon’s daughter Julia, offers non-GMO, all-natural buttermilk fried chicken, wings, chicken tenders, sandwiches and sides. There are two different styles of fried chicken—regular Juju butter, which is whipped butter and cinnamon, and Nashville hot. “I haven’t had a Nashville style hot in West Michigan, so I decided to do that here,” Yang explained.
Aside from fried chicken, Juju Bird offers classic bone-in wings, with six different sauces, as well as chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders. Sides are also available, such as mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and various salads. “We replaced Making Thyme Kitchen here in the market, and their emphasis was on pasta salads and side salads. We know that was popular here, so we kept that.”
If you’re not feeling the whole “cooking thing” this holiday season, you can leave it up to Juju Bird. It will be offering catering, including big party catering trays. As far as future plans, Yang said he and his brother will probably take it easy, besides one goal. “We were thinking if things take off here at Juju Bird, we could start a food truck with fried chicken. Food trucks are huge here in Grand Rapids, so there is a good opportunity for that.”
For more information about Juju Bird or to place a catering order, visit its Facebook page.
*Photos courtesy of Juju Bird
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