In a tight race, Chicken N Pickle, the Kansas City-based restaurant, has been crowned the winner of the Nation’s Restaurant News’ Eatertainment Showdown.
The winner was decided via votes on NRN’s LinkedIn and Instagram pages. Bowling-bocce-bistro concept Pinstripes was the runner-up.
Pickleball may be the leisure craze that’s sweeping the nation, but Kansas City-based Chicken N Pickle is (modestly) proud to have been around since before the sporty trend made such a racket in Americans’ lives. Founded in 2016, the 10-unit concept is an indoor/outdoor eatertainment experience that is equal parts chicken destination and playground for all ages.
“We always say we want to be the Topgolf of pickleball,” Chicken N Pickle president Kelli Alldredge said. “We're not real fancy. We want you to come in your comfortable tennis shoes, hang out and really spend several hours with us having fun. That's our goal.”
Thus, Chicken N Pickle was born as a true new generation eatertainment concept. This wasn’t a pickleball court with a food court attached to it as an afterthought. In addition to multiple pickleball courts and yard games like life-sized Battleship and Jenga, all locations offer a chicken-centric menu that’s “very chef-driven” and locally sourced, Alldredge said.
“Food is a priority,” she said. “I think people are going for the full package. They want activity, they want to be entertained, and they want a place where they can gather that's different. … People walk onto our property expecting a bar-food menu, and they’re blown away by our offerings.”
Other competitors in the Eatertainment Showdown included Five Iron Golf and Puttshack.
Stay tuned to Nation’s Restaurant News in June for our next Showdown.
