Here at Consumerist, we like to keep our fingers on the feeble, erratic pulse of the latest news in junk food. We like to check in annually on the latest novelty fair foods from Chicken Charlie’s, a vendor at various fairs in southern California and an influential fryer of things. Exciting news from San Diego: Chicken Charlie’s opened a year-round restaurant over the weekend.

Our most recent post about Chicken Charlie’s was about their offering at this year’s fair: a triple cheeseburger on a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut bun. Surprisingly, no part of this meal is deep-fried, but no part of it really had to be.

That brings us to an important question: how many deep-fried Klondike Bars and dough balls soaked with Kool-Aid are they moving? Not as many as you’d think. The tiny restaurant’s menu mixes fair food with much healthier fare, like salads and… um, salads with fried chicken on them.

The owner says that the most popular item in the restaurant is right there in the name: people are mostly coming to buy fried chicken, not deep-fried Oreos. He claims to have invented the deep-fried Oreo in 1998, and has been an innovator in fried-food technology since.At the fair, whatever fried innovation makes its debut that year is always the most popular item.

After a few decades of vending and frying at events, he began making plans to open a stationary restaurant a few years ago when his first child was born.

Yelp reviews so far are mixed, but overwhelmingly positive.

Chicken Charlie’s FryBQ Debuts: Fair Food Magician Rejects ‘Boring’ [Times of San Diego]

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