We had the good fortune of connecting with Chi Walker and Nik R. Cole and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chi & Nik, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Fried Chicken and Caviar was very organic from the beginning. Food is our love language. Prior to COVID, we were hosting regular lunch meet-ups, which called “Test Kitchen Tuesday”. This gave us the opportunity to try out fun recipes and commune with friends.

At the beginning of the year, we decided it would be great for us to officially bring Fried Chicken and Caviar to the masses, and did Valentine’s pop-up, “Single in the City”. It was on from there. Things kind of snowballed and we decided to lean in. We like the idea of doing pop-ups because it gives us the freedom to move about, and explore different spaces.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Nik and I had very different journeys that got us to this place. But we believe our partnership is divine intervention in its purest form. This is magic!

Food is art, period. Our approach to food and its preparation and presentation all comes from an artistic lens. What do we want it to taste like? Look like? More often than not we are on one accord without missing a beat.

Relationship building and community building are so very important to the work that we do! Fried Chicken and Caviar is more about the lifestyle than the actual dish. Bringing the familiar and comfortable together with luxury.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First, you must stay at the Cochrane House Luxury History Inn, in Brush Park. Once we hit the streets get ready to go roller skating at the Monroe St. Drive-In. We’ll hit up one of our fave watering holes, the Elephant Room. On Sunday Funday we like to hit Motor City Wine, our new fave restaurant is Baobab Fare in the New Center Area. Mostly we like to support our friends in the industry and go to their pop-up events. For instance the Gabrielle Hall New Orleans style pop-up by chef Ederique Goudia and Dameon Gabriel, we also love the Ferndale Stock Pot by Courtney Burk and her husband Ian. We like the Candy Bar and Paramita Sound Record store and Wine Bar both located in the Siren Hotel.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We of course want to thank our friends and family for being our guinea pigs and trying our food, giving honest feedback, and continued love and support.

We’d also like to give a shout-out to Quiana Broden, of the Kitchen with Cooking With Que for letting us use her space for our first pop-up, and whatever else we may need.

Website: www.friedchickencandcaviar.com

Instagram: @friedchickenandcaviar_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/friedchickencaviar

Image Credits
Rebecca Simonv

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