Welcome back to Five Things, Racket’s recurring rundown of new, new-to-us, or otherwise notable Twin Cities restaurants.
Today we're previewing VUKA, the Minneapolis chicken joint that's bringing the state's first dedicated peri peri concept to the Lyn-Lake spot that housed It's Greek to Me from 1982 until 2023.
1. Minnesota Is (Perhaps Stereotypically) Late to the Peri Peri Trend
The history of peri peri chicken—a bird's eye chili pepper-rooted dish that draws on lemony, peppery, and garlicky African and Portuguese flavors—goes back 400 years. Its rising global popularity coincided with the expansion of Nando's, a South African chain that opened its 1,000th restaurant 14 years ago; about 50 locations operate today in the U.S.
Trend pieces about the peri peri chicken explosion began appearing a decade ago. Here's professor Rebecca Earle, a food historian at the University of Warwick, giving The Independent a little history lesson in 2017...
Chile peppers originated in the Americas, and peri-peri sauce is similar in some ways to the ‘salsas’ typical of many parts of Latin America, with its combination of spicy chiles, a source of sourness such as vinegar, and chopped onions and herbs. Chiles were spread across southern Africa as a result of the trade links that resulted from European colonization of the Americas and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. “Similar forces took both chiles and peri peri chicken to Portuguese settlements in Goa, India, and beyond. Peri peri chicken is thus one of the few positive consequences of colonialism.
And because Minnesotans live shielded from art, culture, and politics in middle-continental hinterlands, VUKA, to our knowledge, represents the state's first dedicated peri peri chicken shop in this, the year of our lord 2026.
2. Lyn-Lake: How Back Is It?
Before we get into the food, let's address the, well, address.
Until its closure in 2019, It's Greek to Me helmed 626 Lake St., one of the four corner outposts anchoring the Lyn-Lake intersection, for almost 40 years; its ghostly signage haunts a single window pane to this day. Remember Casablanca Restaurant & Lounge? Neither do we, but it apparently operated there for one and a half years beginning in 2023.
An LLC connected to brothers Taz, Dominic, and Shepherd Nzara purchased the building for $2.42 million last summer, per county records. Veterans of the nightclub industry, the brothers from Zimbabwe tell the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal they hope VUKA—translation: "wake up" in the Shona language —will invigorate the area. “This neighborhood is just ready to chart a different course," Nzara says. They say live music will be part of the equation inside the restaurant, which opened almost one month ago.
With Wrecktangle Pizza, Haraz Coffee House, New York Gyro, and now VUKA, the epicenter of Lyn-Lake appears ready to rock like no time in recent memory. Throw in throw in other recent-ish hits like Beckett's, Up-Down, and Jade Dynasty, and you've really got something cooking, so to speak, up and down the blocks.
Fine! We'll go ahead and say it: Lyn-Lake is back.
3. Slow-Marinated, Flame-Grilled Chicken Served So Many Ways
VUKA marinates its chicken for 48 hours before serving it via quarter- ($11), half- ($19), and whole-sized ($34) portions in addition to wings ($12 for six), burgers ($13), bowls ($16), and salads ($15+).
Our Table Meal included a smallish whole chicken plus three hefty sides for $50, and the bird itself proved tasty enough. For all the flame-grilled talk on the (AI image-saturated) website, we anticipated much crispier skin, though it's possible our guy suffered in transit—childcare duties necessitated delivery. (Interestingly, the whole still-warm production arrived encased in recyclable thermal delivery bags I'd never before encountered.)
Quality-wise, you're in the same ballpark as a top-rated, considerably larger Kowalski's rotisserie chicken. The zingy signature sauce hit at the medium spice level that most Minnesota palates would find agreeable, and the juicy meat had no trouble falling off the bone.
4. Generous, Forgettable Sides
Very lightly dusted with peri peri seasoning, the Sysco-grade fries were acceptable. Aromatic, fluffy, and allegedly peri peri-infused, the rice bowl heaped generously. Bright and acidic, the passable coleslaw also arrived in great abundance.
We sprang for the garlic roll, which at $4 for four tiny, mostly flavorless knots didn't feel such a bargain. The South African-inspired malva pudding ($7) translates as two toasty, mini cupcakey pastries, both burned to the point of impenetrability at the bottom; the accompanying "rice cream sauce" came inside a container labeled "ICE CREAM."
5. It's All About the Sauce
“We are a sauce company… that just happens to make really good chicken,” tells the Biz Journal.
If it wasn't clear from all the previous copy, those chicken and sides remain a work in progress, although the sauce—tart, sneaky hot, herbaceously shape-shifting, available in five variations—is the real deal. I found myself creating texturally diverse boutique bites like slaw atop chicken atop rice, all smothered with extra sauce, which, sorry, for $1 gets you about a tablespoon's worth.
VUKA, it should be noted, is still in its soft-opening phase. It shows enough promise to warrant a visit next time you're at Lyn-Lake, that essential Minneapolis intersection that we're hearing is "back."
VUKA Flame-Grilled Peri Peri Chicken
Address: 626 W. Lake St., Minneapolis
Hours: 12–9 p.m. daily
