THE NEW YORK TIMES – For $27 at Johnny’s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the whole rotisserie chicken arrives neatly quartered, with lacquered skin and juicy, seasoned meat.
Stephanie Tang, an owner, is no stranger to a good rotisserie chicken.
In 1973, her grandfather opened Peking BBQ, a Peruvian and Cantonese rotisserie spot in Woodside, Queens, which still operates today. In New York, decent and flavorful rotisserie chicken is relatively easy to find, whether at the Peruvian spot down the block or a local grocery store.
But Ms. Tang wanted to pivot from the majority-takeout model of her family’s restaurants to “a place you want to have dinner and hang out with friends.” Along with a full bar, she added items like a sesame Caesar salad to the menu at Johnny’s and tweaked the green sauce recipe.
A handful of new restaurants are turning the affordable grocery-store staple into a sit-down dining main attraction. In Brooklyn, Johnny’s opened in July, preceded by the rotisserie bistro Badaboom in Bedford-Stuyvesant in May.
Mister Cheeks, an all-day cafe in Carroll Gardens where rotisserie chicken is the signature dish, opened in November.
In New Orleans, the chef Michael Stoltzflus pivoted from a tasting-menu approach when he opened Here Today Rotisserie in February. In Philadelphia, Picnic has been spinning rotisserie chickens alongside oysters and small plates since July 2024.
Some are Peruvian, others French, but they are a far cry from the birds in domed plastic containers one might find under a heat lamp at Costco — both in appearance and in price. At Badaboom, for example, a whole rotisserie chicken is $58.
As food prices climb, chicken is especially attractive to restaurant owners and diners alike.
At grocery stores, the average retail price of a whole chicken was $2.04 per pound in November, down by 1.5 percent from last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, the price of beef has soared …
