Fried Chicken Fest returns to NOLA's lakefront in October 2024 | Where NOLA eats

Mr. Shrimp's Kitchen is known for (you guessed it) shrimp. Ba Chi Canteen, on the other hand, has the Vietnamese word for pork belly in its name and throughout the menu.

But this week it's fried chicken that's consuming the creative energy, competitive spirit and logistical planning at both restaurants.

They're two of dozens of food vendors for this year's National Fried Chicken Festival, all eager to feed the masses and vie for coveted Best of Fest awards in a chicken-loving region.

The National Fried Chicken Festival takes place on October 5th and 6th at the New Orleans Lakefront (see details below). It offers many different variations of fried chicken and this year a new way to try more of it, with smaller portions and sampler platters on vendor menus.

Defending champions, new contenders

The appeal of fried chicken extends to all dining sectors across the country and around the world, from Korea to the Caribbean. All of this is also happening at this year's festival.

In 2023, Red Bird Fried Chicken won Best Fried Chicken for its traditional presentation, while Vietnamese restaurant Bao Mi won for Best Use of Chicken in a Dish, a category that gets creative, for Korean Fried Chicken Bao. Both will be back in 2024 to defend their festival titles.

This year around 40 providers are taking part, including many first-time providers. They come in hot.

“My name's going to change soon, after that they'll call me Mr. Chicken,” Larry said. “Mr. Shrimp” Thompson, who made a name for himself with cooked seafood pop-ups before opening his food court restaurant at Riverwalk Mall last year.

Mr. Shrimp serves wings with his own sauce. Ba Chi Canteen took a different approach, with a trio of different chicken-filled fried egg rolls, a twist on a Vietnamese staple.

“We're going outside the box a little bit, there's going to be a lot of wings and sandwiches, so we're giving them something different and new,” said Phat Vu, co-founder of Ba Chi Canteen, which moved to Metairie last year. “It’s good visibility for us to be the festival and we’re out there having fun, and yeah, it could be something competitive too.”

Local and visiting chickens

LUFU NOLA, the downtown Indian restaurant, was a festival phenomenon and won awards at other events. It will be a first-time Fried Chicken Festival vendor offering, among other things, fried butter chicken, a take on the Indian classic.

Familiar local names returning include Chubbie's Fried Chicken, a longtime Algiers favorite, food truck Bonafried (a previous festival winner), Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken (a Memphis brand with a downtown outpost), Tiger's Creole Cuisine and Diva Dawg Food Truck and Fatty's Cracklin', a former Jazz Fest vendor bringing fried chicken cracklin'.

And the two finalists in NOLA.com's online vote for Best Fried Chicken will also be there: Chicken's Kitchen in Gretna returns and Picnic Provisions & Whiskey debuts its fried crawfish chicken.

Additional vendors travel from across the country to participate. Grippy's Sauce Co., another new entrant, is a restaurant outside of Cleveland, Ohio, and Eugene's Hot Chicken, an operation based in Birmingham, Alabama, is also back this year. Bun B, the Houston rapper known for his Trill Burgers smashburgers, is using the festival to introduce a new chicken strip.

Diverse in design

The National Fried Chicken Festival made USA Today's Readers' Choice list of the best specialty food festivals earlier this year, coming in at No. 6.

Tina Dixon, head of the festival's food and beverage program, said this has led to more inquiries from potential vendors from more of the country and even overseas.

“We heard from people in Paris. There might be a day when we have French Fried Chicken here,” she said.

But as usual this year, the list of vendors is peppered with small operators, including mom-and-pop restaurants, caterers and food trucks, and many of them are Black-owned businesses.

This is the result of a conscious effort by the organization behind the festival to open doors to more small players in the local food scene. The festival's founder, Cleveland Spears, CEO of local agency Spears Group, calls sharing the festival's economic opportunities “fundamental to its mission.”

Festival-sized flavors and platters

With so many options, festival-goers need a strategy to get a wide range of tastes, and this year the festival is encouraging vendors to offer smaller portions to make it easier for people to try. For example, a chicken sandwich vendor might offer a slider version or a half sandwich. Others offer combo platters for a group of friends to try the entire menu at once.

“We want to make it a dine-around,” Dixon said. “We’re really excited to see what everyone is doing this year and we want people to be able to try a lot of them.”

MUST KNOW

National Fried Chicken Festival

When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., October 5th and 6th

Where: New Orleans Lakefront, along Lakeshore Drive, from Franklin Avenue to the Seabrook Bridge.

What: Live entertainment on four stages, ticketed beer and margarita gardens, a “car corral” with customized vehicles and children’s activities. A Cane's block party with DJs, games and performances, and Heinz sponsors a “Food is Culture” stage for interviews and demos. Tickets start at $20, are free for children 12 and under, and ticketed VIP experiences are available. See friedchickenfestival.com.