Near King Street and University Avenue, there must be three dozen fast food joints. Shawarma, poutine, Korean, Caribbean: you pretty much name it, and it’s there.
The economics of central place theory and hunger for diverse foods contributes to the corner’s density — and often hellish bedlam.
It’s a perfect storm: a major intersection, transit buses, road construction and small tribes of students crossing streets at a desultory pace coming from and going to lectures.
Or searching out cheap eats.
Sandwiched within University Commons, along with a chain pizza joint and an AYCE sushi restaurant, Penny’s Hot Chicken is a food stall along a narrow corridor of five or six take-away stalls.
Pick your food and step up to place your order — just as a third-party delivery-app driver jumps the queue.
C’est la vie. It’s part of the mayhem and clatter of the block — but perhaps also urban energy.
When you get your Penny’s, it’s worth it for hefty, juicy and nicely drippy fried chicken sandwiches.
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A local creation, Penny’s opened in May 2021, and has grown to a Dundas Square, Toronto, location.
Owner Jeremy Lai, a Laurier graduate, also founded neighbouring The Poké Box (written about in this column), which expanded to Toronto. Penny’s is named for his daughter.
General manager Andy Ngo, also a Laurier alumnus, says Nashville chicken is popular.
“People like the juiciness, the spice. And students want something that feels like home. We started with that idea, and it went from there,” Ngo says.
One can recognize the “need” for a late-night crunch, some heat and fatty juiciness after the bars close. That’s only part of it, says Ngo.
“Penny’s is popular with families too. Kids love chicken tenders.”
The juices running to the elbows, I devoured most of a Classic and a Sweet Daisy — which makes for quite a lot to eat — quite happily.
A few days before you eat your sandwich, Penny’s cuts the chicken into portions and brines it. “It’s a two-day process,” Ngo says.
The chicken gets a flour-based dredging and initial cook before being fried at order — creating a deep exterior crunch and drippy-moist inside.
Made to order, the sandwiches take a bit of time to fry and get packaged up.
The Sweet Daisy honey garlic-dipped thigh nestles onto sweet, house-pickled jalapeños (“pickled for about five days,” Ngo says) and Penny’s own jalapeño-ranch dressing.
The Classic is Nashville-style with paprika-forward spicing, a chile-oil dip, coleslaw, sweet pickles and “come back” sauce.
Heat levels are your preference: there’s “plain Jane” rising in Scoville potency through five levels before hitting “No Georgie! Don’t do it.”
I went for (tame) medium but next time I’d go for “Hot: Welcome to Nashville.”
The spicy-mayo “come back” sauce captures Southern U.S. hospitality: “Y’all come back.”
The hefty sandwiches are contained (barely) by a flat-top toasted brioche bun. There’s also a Hot Mac with nacho cheese on sandwich bread.
The fries, not homemade, are either crinkle or waffle; the former are excellent: their tight-ridged structure yields a bit less potato but packs terrific crispiness.
“It’s a crunch everybody loves,” Ngo says.
Otherwise, the menu is relatively small. You could order the ever-popular chicken tenders, in a box or as a combo. Ngo says they are popular with families and kids. But doesn’t everyone love tenders? — I think so.
There’s a half-dozen sides like loaded fries, mac-and-cheese wedges, slaw, fried pickles, and five sauces to choose from.
At $11, Penny’s suits students and families — even taking into consideration the in-house food-prep — or anyone eager for a crisp-chicken munch, says Ngo.
“There’s other fried chicken out there. But we want to be different.”
Andrew Coppolino of Kitchener is author of “Farm to Table” and co-author of “Cooking with Shakespeare.” He is the 2022 Joseph Hoare gastronomic writer-in-residence at the Stratford Chefs School. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewcoppolino.
