The Geniuses Behind Mr Crackles Open Fried Chicken Spin-Off Thirsty Bird

Remember that one glorious day in February of last year when your favourite pig-meat dispensary, Mr Crackles, was selling crispy southern fried chicken for $5 bucks a serve and it sold out before you could get in the car and tear down the freeway screaming “I’m coming sweet chicken! I wrote you every day for a year!”? Well, Mr Crackles giveth chicken and Mr Crackles taketh away chicken, but now you can taketh away your own chicken from their new takeaway spin-off Thirsty Bird.

Thirsty Bird has been open for a few weeks, but only peeped its head out to officially say hi to the world earlier this week. It’s taken the team two years of planning, but they’re finally up and running. Like its predecessor, Mr Crackles, Thirsty Bird is a mono-meat venue. On the menu you’ll find chicken — and not much else. But rest assured it’ll be some of the best chicken of your life.

Chef and co-owner of both businesses, Sam Horowitz, says it took him a long time to perfect the recipe. "It’s similar to KFC in that we offer four or eight pieces, burgers and sides, but my recipe only has about ten herbs and spices," he says. The menu is has a classic American diner vibe, with buffalo wings, chicken piece meals and four chicken burgers to choose from with waffle fries, chicken crackling and mac and cheese on the side. Sam also says they'll be introducing waffles onto the menu before long — and it doesn’t get more American than that.

The blueprint for Thirsty Bird originally involved more space and more booze. They wanted to open a bar with a kitchen and a chicken-only menu (beer and chicken, is there anything else in life?). But thanks to licensing difficulties, the current iteration of Thirsty Bird is a tiny takeaway joint with seating for five people. Watch this tiny space though, as they have plans to expand the empire in coming years. In the meantime, we’ve got a whole new menu to keep us very, very happy.

Thirsty Bird is located at shop 3, 2-14 Bayswater Road, Potts Point. It's currently open 5.30pm till late Tuesday through Sunday, but will be opening for lunch soon.

Image: Dollar Photo Club