Mad for Chicken opens second Long Island location, in Plainview
Mad for Chicken's scallion chicken tenders, along with drumsticks and wings. Credit: Newsday/Scott Vogel
It’s been more than 15 years since Mike and Inna Choi first visited a Korean fried chicken restaurant together. The occasion was the couple’s first date, and given that they’ve been together pretty much ever since, we can infer that the evening was a success, one in which the Chois discovered they were mad for each other — and perhaps even mad for the chicken — although not that they would someday own their own Mad for Chicken.
For one thing, the now-growing chain was in its infancy then. For another, Mike was a financial services guy in the midst of a 25-year career as a CFO and COO of various banking divisions, what he termed an “ivory tower” existence in which he felt both integral to and removed from the companies he served.
“Essentially business management has been my focus, along with consulting,” Choi said. “So this was really a test of — can I walk the walk?”
Early this month, the Chois’ Mad for Chicken opened in Plainview, where Inna is from and the couple now lives, and for some their journey will seem unlikely. But it may well be a testament to the peculiar power of the chain, which seems to inspire an unnatural love in certain people.
This is Korean fried chicken of the highest order, with smooth and glossy skin that shatters with the sweetness and fracture pattern of a candy apple. MFC’s chicken combo prices range from $14.95 for three drumsticks and five wings to $39.95 for eight drums and 15 wings.
“I mean, who doesn’t like fried chicken, right?” Choi said. “But here it’s at its highest quality. Everything is fresh; it’s made from scratch, hand-brushed, and I think people recognize quality.”
MFC’s nicer-than-fast-food-and-cheaper-than-full-service vibe also feels of the moment. The dining rooms are cozy, rustic, unpretentious and, at least in Plainview’s case, not open to the public for another month or so. (The Chois hope to offer eat-in dining next month, along with a fuller menu, cocktails and a beer program favoring local breweries. Meanwhile, chicken fans can eat in at the Island’s other location, in Rockville Centre, which opened in September.)
Its name aside, Mad For Chicken clearly aspires to be more than a place with great chicken, an ethos that the Chois find particularly appealing. Like others in town, they were saddened by last year’s closing of Plainview Diner, particularly Mike, whose world continues to partly revolve around a diner he grew up with in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. “I went there as a junior high kid, a high school kid, in college, and then when we all separated for college, my friends and I would all come back to it,” he said. “Even now, when everybody lives all over the place, we still come back to it.”
Clearly, it’s a place that Choi and his friends are still mad for, after all these years, a madness he hopes will soon descend upon Plainview.
Mad for Chicken, 8 Washington Ave., Plainview; opening hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Monday; 516-226-3703, madforchicken.com.
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.
