About that “not chicken.” It”™s Haven Hot Chicken”™s vegetarian alternative to actual fowl, an oven roasted, then twice-fried cauliflower steak, topped, just like the real thing, with coleslaw and a pickle in a Martin”™s potato bun. Tasting far better to my mind than any plant-based substitute, both in terms of texture and flavor, this vegetable surrogate is a real contender.
But Haven”™s signature is undoubtedly “THE Sandwich,” as the company proclaims ”“ a great brick of buttermilk-marinated, boneless halal chicken, which demands to be eaten with two hands, although the sheer size of the beast might make this an impossibility. (Plastic cutlery is provided). Heat level, which you will be asked about when ordering, ranges from “country,” which means no spice, to “haven ”“ for the hothead.” I opted for “medium,” which, even with my fondness for spice, I found lip-smackingly, well, hot. I felt that taking it to the next level would have obliterated any taste of chicken.
Other menu options, from a mercifully short list, include “Tendies” ”“ more like traditional nuggets, served on white bread ”“ and Chicken & Waffles. There are also sides and “snacks.”
Featured items, which is to say the more substantial ones, also come with a choice of six sauces. Factoring in all the sauces and the heat options, my elementary math suggests that those five essential items quickly turn into 150 possibilities.
Haven has four co-owners, whose connection goes way back. CEO Etkin Tekin used to work for restaurant industry whizz Justin Sobocinski, at the latter”™s Caseus Fromagerie & Bistro in New Haven, when he was just out of Yale University. In a recent phone conversation, Sobocinski told me how he and Tekin had remet at the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville. While they were down there, he said, they had tried a bunch of Nashville Hot Chicken places ”“ Prince”™s, Hattie B”™s and Fire among them ”“ and had become addicted to the “spice, the juice and the crunch.” They also lamented that these places didn”™t exist in the Northeast.
Back home, Tekin called Sobocinski, telling him he was longing to get out of the corporate world he was now in and wanted to do something entrepreneurial. He also introduced him to Rob La Tronica and Craig Sklar, who were working together at New Haven”™s highly-regarded Beer Collective, and had come up with a great recipe for Nashville hot chicken. Tekin told Sobocinski, “I want you to taste this and I want you to come on and join,” which after some initial reluctance, as he was involved in multiple other businesses at the time, he did. Although Sobocinski originally came on board as an adviser, he is now president of the company and “fully entrenched.”
The four started doing pop-ups pre-pandemic and revised their plans during the pandemic, from opening full-service restaurants to QSRs (quick-service restaurants). As for the chicken being halal, that arose from the time the owners were doing pop-ups and testing the market to see if people liked the product. At one point they took over the kitchen of a well-known Indian restaurant, Sherkaan, on Broadway, right in the heart of Yale, on the condition that any meat brought into the kitchen would be halal ”“ permissible under Islamic dietary laws. LaTronica, who was Haven”™s chef at the time (he is now the company”™s Chief Growth Officer,), “fell in love” with the consistency and quality of the meat. So, they have stuck with it ”“ chicken that is 100% certified halal and free of growth hormones or antibiotics.
An unexpected bonus of choosing to go with halal chicken was the discovery of a local Muslim population that was delighted with it. (None of the co-owners is Muslim.) “We didn”™t even know when Ramadan was when we started,” Sobocinski added. “But we noticed numbers dropping off during the (holy) month.” The next year, during Ramadan, Haven Hot Chicken extended its nighttime hours (when Muslims broke their fast) in order to accommodate the local community.
Back to the chicken itself. Over the course of a couple of visits, I must admit to finding the chicken in the sandwich just a little fibrous, a bit of a chew. This could have come about from just a few seconds longer than necessary in the fryer, although I appreciated the good color and crunchy crust, which, let”™s face it, is the real point of fried chicken. The French fries were a good shape and color, too, though suffered the usual fate of most things deep-fried and put immediately into a closed box, namely going soggy as the air turns to steam. One simple fix ”“ at least for eat-ins ”“ is not to close the lid of the box.
That said, the hot chicken-eating public are clearly loving the Haven model, with leases have already signed on new outlets in Middletown and Storrs and more openings to follow.
“With all the expansion it”™s been an adventure, but we”™re having a great time,” said Sobocinski, clearly upbeat and excited about Haven”™s future.
For more, visit havenhotchicken.com.
