Flock of friends finding way for fried chicken food biz to take flight

UPDATE JUNE 7: Burdy has set up shop on a retrofitted yellow bus and will launch June 7, running full-time at a Vancouver brewery. 

The number of fried chicken spots opening up across Vancouver might have you saying "what the cluck?" but one group of four entrepreneurial pals is taking it as a cue to add their food biz to the roost.

Called Burdy, the concept is a take-out and delivery restaurant specializing in chicken parm sandwiches - with an eggplant option, too.

One of Burdy partners tells V.I.A. that the business is in the early stages, but will launch as a "ghost kitchen" concept and ultimately shifting to pop-ups and then "something more."

The team behind Burdy is comprised of "four friends who have previously worked together in the food industry and frequently got together and would come up with new recipes just to try," they explain. Most of them hail from Ontario, where chicken parm sandwiches are popular, and they realized it's something missing from the Vancouver food scene. 

"We decided to come up with our own spin on the chicken parm recipe, and after coming up with a chicken and an eggplant sandwich we realized it was something we wished we could have ordered on the spot and delivered to us," a rep for Burdy tells us.

Burdy's Chicken Parm Sandwich. . By @eatburdy/Instagram

The Burdy Chicken Parm Sandwich is made with fried chicken, tomato sauce, your choice of house-made basil or spicy mayo, parmesan and mozzarella cheese, on a toasted Portofino potato bun. The Eggplant Parm Sandwich is stacked the same, swapping chicken for double-stacked fried eggplant with the addition of fresh arugula.

They're also perfecting sides like seasoned fries and Caesar salad, and Tiramisu for dessert.

The Burdy crew has been firing up test recipes for friends and families to taste-drive, and the concept began to take flight.

Now they're securing a kitchen location and once things get going, Burdy is looking to open within the next month or two. We'll update as soon as there's more Burdy news; for now, you can follow @eatburdy on Instagram.