Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Chicken Town agaaaaain
Chicken Town gets another puff piece, this time in the Guardian.
Nice idea, maybe, though I do want to visit the chicken farm to ask the birds what they think.
But it has no place in the frontage of Edwardian buildings on Tottenham Green.
How nice to get £300k in loans and grants from my Council Tax, and get all these advertorials (almost) to make sure its full of the right sort of people in the evenings to subsidise the slightly-less-fatloaded children's lunch menu.
I can think of other Old Fire Stations that become Arts Centres, or Community Centres, or nurseries. Fried-meat centres? Hmmm.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Reading the article, they're trying to achieve a lot. There's an interesting mix of creative people, food people & local government/mayor's support (including Bloomberg money). If they're serving healthier food people want at a good price then why not and the project may serve as a catalyst for further investment into the area, hopefully of the type people currently living there want.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I looked back at your September comment, Matt, and wondered whether the further information and views in this thread had given you second thoughts. And perhaps also reading the comments underneath the Guardian article?
Ignore mine; I've said it before. But there are some interesting points made by other people.
For example "wuli" from rural Herefordshire is sceptical about the claim that the chickens are: "... from Swaledale. They’re herb fed. They are basically the happiest chickens in the world.” [...] “They’re literally pampered. They have Jacuzzis and stuff like that. They’re some of the best chickens you can buy."Then there's "Strong Cocoa" who has doubts about the apparent aim of "... introducing foods like coleslaw and sweet potatoes to teens of African or Caribbean ethnicity". And who points out that chains like Nando's, Peri Peri and Roosters serve grilled chicken. So how far do the health claims of Chicken Town actually stack-up in comparison?
Rereading your comment, Matt, also nudged me into taking another look at the original article where Ben Rymer of Chicken Town takes the journalist Carole Cadwalladr to an unnamed local chicken shop "just around the corner" from Tottenham Green. There Ms Cadwalladr describes how:
"... the formica tables are chipped and the floor is greasy but, for just £2, we get a huge platter containing seven spicy chicken wings and a great mound of chips."
“Look at that,” says Rymer when I bring it to the table. “I can’t even bear the smell of it. That chicken will be the cheapest of cheap. It’ll be this nasty, frozen stuff which is imported from Brazil. It’s pumped full of hormones. Ugh. It’s revolting.”
It's implied that this is what you get in every chicken place in Tottenham. And perhaps Mr Rymer knows this for a fact? I hope it's not just guesswork that lets him rubbish his competitors in an interview with a journalist from a national newspaper. "I wouldn’t even feed it to my dog", says Rymer.Personally, I like to know that my facts have been cooked-up in independent reliable sauces.
But let's assume that Ben Rymer may be correct, or partly correct. That still leaves open a huge question: how is this experiment being independently evaluated? Because risking £300,000 of public money on an unproven experiment, with no pilot phase, is a major commitment.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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ATTACHED (below) are the Minutes from a meeting—11 months ago—of the 'Tottenham Programme Delivery Board' at the Council. A number of questions are asked and answered about the then proposed Chicken Town business. This licensed restaurant is now trading—albeit during limited hours—on the west side of Tottenham Green.
Some excerpts:
The restaurant could go to another location but Tottenham Green has great footfall and night time potential.
The shop will get chickens from suppliers through linking to bulk purchases of other restaurants, and will also exercise portion control to have zero waste both sides of the counter
DJ asked what would happen if they began to run at a loss. BR responded that the long (8 year) lease on the building would enable the business to sell up (having informed LBH) and recoup some of the money.
LG noted that the Board had determined to approve the proposal subject to due diligence including of the financial projections and programme plan
[Source:
Haringey Council answer in September to Freedom
of information query by former Cllr. Zena Brabazon] - Attachments:
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Permalink Reply by Nez on
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I went to Chicken Town recently and thought I'd add my experiences to counter some if this negativity.
The chicken was good, and I'm happy to pay more for a happy chicken. The cheesy sauce chips, albeit not healthy, were awesome. (They do healthier sides if that's what your after). I see it as a positive addition to the area, and hope it does well.
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"I'm happy to pay more for a happy chicken."
There's a story about a sitting MP who was unexpectedly defeated in a General Election. There were the usual disputes about counting errors and spoiled ballot papers. But finally the Election official asked if the candidates were happy with the figures. "Oh yes", said the defeated MP. "Ecstatic".
Here's a photo of a happy chicken.
Perhaps not quite ecstatic. But certainly exeunt; on the way out. And, by the way, fire-grilled, not fried. Healthier that way, the restaurant explains. And these are British chickens raised by British farmers; and fresh not frozen.
So how do I know all this - including the chickens' state of mind? Because one of the two co-founders of the business tells me so on their Linked-in page.
"All of our chickens come from happy little chicken farms in East Anglia produced by British farmers who care about their product which is always fresh and never frozen". Adding that their "... sauces are produced in our kitchen which are fresh with no artificial ingredients."Like many other new businesses they are said to be: "on a journey". And not just to Suffolk - lovely place though it is. Their journey is: "to discover new sauces, marinades and flavours with an aim of bringing you back the best from our travels".
Their journey is also inspired by the fashion for street food. In London's businesses and others across the globe.
What do these businesses share besides wholesome delicious food? They have humility, honesty, originality and vivacity. And they're unpretentious.
"... humble outdoor street canteens, grills and shacks that serve good, honest and original food. They exist all over the world many of us have visited them on our travels abroad. No matter where you are, a beach in Thailand or a back street canteen in Delhi; they all have something in common, they are family run, unpretentious and vivacious places that serve delicious wholesome food."Many readers will realised that I'm not referring to Chicken Town. But to Chiquen which opened in Wood Green last August.
Features Wood Green Chiquen don't have in common with Chicken Town include the lack of an attractive Listed building for their premises. Nor do they have a space for tables outside - opposite a lovely public Green recently refurbished for £1.5 million. And, as far as I know, they've not had a Haringey grant of £90k and a soft loan of £210k. Plus loads of free council publicity.
Nor - again I may be wrong - have they Cllr JoeGo Logo Goldberg sitting in their establishment tweeting to the world. (I accept that could actually be off-putting for some potential customers.)
Nez, I'm glad you enjoyed a pleasant tasty meal at a reasonable cost. But it's just another restaurant. And like many other businesses it's giving customers the soft sell. Nothing wrong with that. It's a recognised way to try building customer confidence.
Do you remember a huge M&S advert showing a pair of muddy boots? Which weren't for sale, but a sales pitch to persuade customers that their food was good honest organic feet-on-the-soil farmer's market local produce.
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THOSE who don't live near Chicken Town could be forgiven for not knowing where it is. Those who do live nearer the premises in the Grade II Listed building, could also be forgiven for not knowing where it is. The screen-shots from Google street view (below, click to enlarge) may help to locate it:
Location—Tottenham High Road (the A10) looking south. Chicken Town is at the middle right, behind the old fire station doors
Location—looking south down the Town Hall Approach towards the busy A10 Tottenham High Road, running across the left middle. Tottenham Green is on the left, Tottenham Town hall on the right. Chicken Town is at the middle right, in the old fire station
Location—further down the lane; Chicken Town is at the right of the picture; (CONEL at the centre)
Location—wheeled around to the right: L->R: Chicken Town, Tottenham Town Hall, Town Hall Approach road
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Yep, just where you'd expect to find a fried chicken shop, in a row of listed Edwardian ex people-owned buildings.
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Chicken Town is handy at lunch time for the students of CONEL next door. The difficulty is that – while this group may become regular and frequent patrons – this 'market' will be served meals that are explicitly (cross-) subsided:
The 'business' loses money on each meal served at lunch time and depends on the subsidy from the fully-priced meals served later in the day.
The first group and indeed the whole business model, would seem to depend on (significant) passing trade and footfall. The location – set back from the main road – doesn't seem to me to be conducive to this. If this was business with promoters of commercial acumen and experience – investing their own money – they may not have chosen this site.
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THERE was an article about the Council-sponsored licensed restaurant in The Mirror last week and another on page 23 of the Evening Standard (print version, 21 March).
Few start-up restaurants enjoy press on this scale. Collectively, the publicity is surely unprecedented.
Tripadvisor—that probably isn't the subject of a press release by a PR team—has published mixed reviews from patrons, here.
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It sounds like you resent them getting the publicity...why is that exactly?
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I cannot think of another restaurant that's had so much promotion. The Standard's print version was titled Fried Chicken gets a healthy twist at a not-for-profit fast food restaurant, but the online of the story version is
Chicken Town: Not-for-profit Tottenham restaurant hailed as Britain's healthiest chicken shop
I reckon I know who's doing the hailing.
The Council promoted CT with a full page advertorial in Haringey People (distributed to every household in the Borough).
It's even been a cover story on the Council's internal staff magazine "inharingey" with a link to the CT website (January/February 2016), titled, Can Chicken Town change the way Haringey eats?
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And that's a problem because....?
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