Welcome back to “Five Things,” Racket’s recurring rundown of new, new-to-us, or otherwise notable Twin Cities restaurants.
Today we’re grabbing takeout from Tender Lovin’ Chix, which is bringing a mashup of Southern and Asian flavors to the corner of 27th & Lyndale Avenue. Tender Lovin’ Chix opened in the former Fire & Nice Ale House space in August, with a menu they’re calling “Blackanese”—there are tendies and fries here, but also beef bulgogi and a matcha cheesecake.
Here are five other things you should know before you go.
1. Bringing Some More Color to Lyndale Avenue
Last year, Tender Lovin’ Chix started hitting the road (and festivals, and football games) in a shiny red food truck. You couldn’t miss it—this mobile chicken truck is candy-apple red, or maybe fire-engine red, or red like the killer car Christine. She stands out.
The brick-and-mortar restaurant brings that color inside, with bright-red tables and metal barstools that look like they could have been fashioned from the food truck’s sides. And outside, there’s a mural of a sort of supervillain-lookin’ MF Doom-type character. It all fits right in on a vibrant stretch of Lyndale that’s already full of street art.
2. The Drink Options Are Fun—and All Over the Place
Billy Tserenbat (of Billy Sushi in the North Loop) and Marques (Ques) Johnson (of the now-defunct tender shop CHX) are behind TLC, and you can sort of get a sense for their overlapping and divergent tastes. Where else, I ask you, can you get a $12 order of chicken tenders and fries with a $90 bottle of Veuve Clicquot?
There are four beers on tap and a few more in bottles and cans; cocktails include the ChixPRESSO, an O.G. Fashioned, and something called the Electric Shark made with Captain Morgan and Kinky Blue. If that doesn’t sound like a drink you’d have mixed up in college…
3. Here, Rush Hour 4 Has Already Been Released
TLC’s big food truck hit was an order of chicken tenders over Tokyo-fried rice. At the new restaurant, this platter, cheekily named Rush Hour 4 ($17), is emblematic of the “Blackanese” fare that peppers the menu. You can order wings, or onion rings, or tendies and fries; you can also get kimchi cucumbers, edamame, or chicken potstickers. Other entrees include chicken curry and basil chicken, and there are even birria tacos, which I’d really like to try on a return visit.
Semi-related: Did you know chicken tenders were only invented 50 years ago? The New York Times had a great history of the breaded-and-fried tenderloin earlier this month.
4. These Tenders Must Come From Mighty Big Chickens
We ordered the Rush Hour 4, of course, and were rewarded with two hulkin’ panko-breaded tendies—truly massive, and truly tender—on a bed of tasty fried rice. You’ll want to drizzle the accompanying savory-sweet yum-yum sauce over the whole dish… and you’ll probably want to dip your fries in it, too.
I may have been partial to the Chicken Sammie ($16), which serves up a similarly hulkin’ piece of meat and fresh slaw on a squishy bun, but although we forked over an extra buck to “make it spicy,” it wasn’t even Minnesota hot. (I was hoping for a little more spice from everything we ordered, really—nothing one of the 50 bottles of hot sauce I keep around the house couldn't fix.)
5. TLC… or FOX?
Tender Lovin’ Chix has a high TV-to-blank-wall ratio; five big flatscreens line the space behind the bar, and there are another five mounted across from them in the dining room. Judging from the chicken shop’s Instagram account, that’s made it a popular place to catch college football on Saturdays or watch the NFL on Sundays.
With LynLake Brewery and Iron Door Pub a few blocks away on Lyndale, and the new Beckett’s across the street from that, this stretch of Lyn-Lake is becoming a fun little sports bar hub. (What better time to plan a short Sunday bar crawl and catch the (5-0!) Vikings?
Tender Lovin’ Chix
Address: 2700 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday
