On Friday we told you about Crazy for Chicken, and now here’s some intel on a perhaps even more questionably named Lower East Side fried-chicken purveyor, Patate Fellow. The restaurant opened last week in the former Fat Hippo space at 71 Clinton Street, and its menu is the sort of heavy-food hodgepodge that can only appeal to the considerably inebriated.
Reflecting the name, there are fries served with ketchup and three kinds of house-doctored mayo (basil, yuzu, curry), plus the spicy Korean sauce called gochujang. Owner Sukeun Kim spent ten years managing Baden Baden in K-Town and says his Korean-style double-cooked fried chicken is nearly the same recipe served at that establishment. You can order the poultry over fries or opt for wings alone, coated in a spicy house-secret sauce. Alternatively, you might prefer a jumbo-shrimp cocktail, or perhaps baked eggplant with mozzarella. (See the full, eclectic lineup below.) The liquor license is pending, but Kim hopes to have it in two to three weeks.
Kim left Fat Hippo’s white-leather banquettes in place but changed the rest of the space, adding dark-wood tables and a matching, larger bar, and painting the once-orange exterior army green. The place is open from 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 4:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Oh, and about that name, Kim explains: “’Patate’ by itself is too simple. The ‘fellow’ is really just friendly, like a guy, a friend.” So now you know — and here’s the menu.
Edamame $4.95
French fries, small $4.95, large $8.95
House salad, served with Italian dressing, $6.95
Shrimp cocktail, $12.95
Fried calamari, $10.95
Grilled chicken wrap, $7.95
Mozzarella and eggplant, oven-cooked, $9
Chicken tatsuko-age, $8
Hot wings, 5 pcs. $7.95; 13 pcs. $18.95
Kari kari age, $7
Chicken salad, $8
Potate chicken with French fries, small, $14.95, large, $20.95
Patate Fellow, 71 Clinton St., nr. Rivington St.; 212-533-4781
