Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris and Christine Dane.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been cooking for 17 years professionally. This is my first solo project and I couldn’t be more excited. I never went to culinary school, instead opting for the less traditional “school of hard knocks”. I started my career as a dishwasher/prep cook in Phoenix, AZ when I was 19 years old, instantly falling in love with the inter-workings of traditional kitchen. I worked my way through various jobs, joining many different kitchens and learning every different technique and cuisine I could. In 2008, I moved back to Los Angeles and started working at Providence for Chef Michael Cimarusti. I thought I knew a lot about cooking when I joined his team, but he reshaped everything I thought I knew and transformed me into a completely different cook and person. I worked at Providence for about four years when the opportunity to become Sous Chef for Michael at his new restaurant Connie and Teds presented itself. I jumped at the chance to help be a part of something from the very beginning, from the end of construction to staff training and soft openings. It really gave me a sense of the amount of hard work required to open a restaurant in Los Angeles. I spent another 4 ½ years at Connie and Teds until I felt I had reached a point in my career where I thought I was ready to start something on my own. I got an opportunity to meet with Adele Yellin and pitch her an idea for a fried chicken stall in her infamous Los Angeles downtown food hall Grand Central Market. She liked the idea but wasn’t totally sold on someone who had spent the past nine years cooking mainly seafood. I asked her to trust me and let me cook for her, I did and she loved it and now the rest is history.
Our Story
The Story of Lucky Bird goes back about 15 years when my now wife and I first met while in college at Arizona State University. My first job in the kitchen as a dishwasher/ prep cook was also the place where Christine was a waitress. One look and I was smitten, but she unfortunately wanted nothing to do with me. I’m persistent though and eventually won her over and we dated for a little over two years. She got accepted to Anderson at UCLA school of business and moved to Los Angeles and our relationship couldn’t take the strain of being that far apart. We both moved on with our lives, occasionally thinking fondly of the good times we had together, but we didn’t speak, hear or see each other for 14 years! One day, out of the blue, I got a message from her on Facebook, she had heard I moved back to L.A. and wanted to see how I was doing. We met up and it was if we had never separated at all. Again, I was smitten and so was she. It took eight months and we were married and I was planning to open a fried chicken stall. I couldn’t think of a better name than Lucky Bird, because I felt like the luckiest guy on earth to be reunited with my love after all that time apart. Lucky Bird is a daily reminder of how fortunate I am to have someone who is so special to me in my life.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We have been at Grand Central Market for 9 1/2 months now and we feel very blessed to be part of the market. GCM has been around for 100 years and to be part of history is truly a dream come true!
Opening in a market with such rich history also comes with its own set of problems. Construction was constantly put on hold because we had to be extremely careful because the building is so old. We found old wooden beams that had to be checked by structural engineers, just to make sure we weren’t going to collapse the building on top of us. We had to reinforce the floors in certain spots to make sure it could support our equipment. All of these issues caused major delays to a project I was already very excited to start.
We also use pressure fryers in the Lucky Bird kitchen, and I was unfamiliar with how to use them at first. It took me a good month to get the hang of them, and now they are an essential piece of equipment and help make the chicken at Lucky Bird so special and taste juicier and crispier than other local places.
I also knew staffing and turnover was going to be a little tough in the beginning. I trained in some very high-end restaurants in my career and I have developed higher standards because of it. It was difficult for some cooks to see my vision and be willing to fulfill my seemingly high demands for fried chicken. Thankfully a lot of my cooks have bought into our mission statement and have adopted like-minded goals when it comes to providing the best and freshest product we can get.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Lucky Bird – what should we know?
At Lucky Bird we pride ourselves on making everything from scratch, from our fermented hot sauce to our buttermilk biscuits. We source organic, free range Mary’s Chickens from Pitman farms in San Joaquin Valley and we cut and portion whole birds ourselves making sure the quality is up to our standards. I do not claim to be from the south, so I think our fried chicken is not your typical southern fried chicken. Instead, I like to think we do Los Angeles fried chicken, putting emphasis on a seemingly lightly fried bird. We brine our chicken in a citrus brine, use Wondra flour, and fry in pressure cookers. The citrus brine gives a nice refreshing note to the often heavy taste of fried chicken, and we finish the chicken with fresh lemon zest and maldon sea salt to fortify that lemon flavor. Wondra is an instant flour and doesn’t absorb oil like a regular ap flour, so it becomes crispier and lighter when used in frying. And finally, our pressure fryers make sure that all those juices stay intact inside the chicken when it’s fried so our product becomes juicier and more tender when finished. It also allows us to spend less time in the oil, resulting in a less greasy and lighter product.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
First and foremost my wonderful wife deserves the most credit. She has been behind me and helping me realize my dreams from the start. Her unselfishness and willingness to put her own career on hold to help me shows me what true love for another human is all about. I truly couldn’t do any of this without her support.
My family also deserves a lot of credit. My father has helped finance a portion of Lucky Bird and my stepmother was one reason I got to meet with the owners of the market to pitch my ideas in the first place. Both have been instrumental in helping me with business decisions thanks to their many years of owning their own businesses.
Finally, all the chefs in my life have taught me something, even if I didn’t know I was learning anything at the time. Some chefs that come to mind are Michael Cimarusti, Sam Baxter, Tristan Aitchison, and Amy Wolf. All of them are part of the Providence and Connie and Teds family and all have affected my culinary career in one way or another. Each was instrumental in teaching me everything from organizing skills, to plating techniques and also how to search for the best ingredients and how to use them honestly. Also, a special shout out to Steve “Chops” Smith who is the chef that got me into cooking professionally and changed to way I first interacted with food in the early stages of my career.
Contact Info:
- Address: Grand Central Market
317 S Broadway Street
LA, CA 90013 - Website: www.luckybirdla.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Kate Romero, Christine Andreocci Dane
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