Brixton: A tale of two chicken shops

As one Brixton chicken shop closes, another opens – although there are few similarities between them.

Other Side Fried – the only restaurant in the chain – reopened as Buster’s Hamburger Bar on 1 November after frying chicken on Atlantic Road since 2017.

Owners Matt Harris and Tommy Kempton began the brand from a van in 2014. They also own the small plates restaurant Ploussard in Clapham with its list of low intervention, biodynamic and natural wines.

In contrast, Chicken Cottage intends to have 100 outlets worldwide by 2027. It plans to open in Brixton before new year at an as yet unrevealed site.

When it does, the outlet will have approaching 70 branches in the UK. The nearest to Brixton at the moment is on Streatham Hill. It is open seven days a week until the early hours for collection or delivery.

While headquartered in Croydon, the 30-year-old Chicken Cottage business is a subsidiary of the Malaysia-based Terengannu Inc (TI Group) the investment arm of the country’s seventh largest state, Trengganu.

It says it was the first UK fast-food outlet to introduce halal chicken – in its original Wembley branch which opened in 1983.

Its new Brixton outlet will be a franchise owned by Nigerian businessman Mohammed Adebola Sheidu, chairman of Brains & Hammers, a Nigerian real estate company established in 2006 and offering investors “unbelievable annual interest rates”.

He is also the franchisee of Chicken Cottage’s recently opened Camden branch.