David Chang Announces New Fried Chicken Restaurant Called Fuku

New Yorkers have a new restaurant to get excited about, because at a keynote address at SXSW last night David Chang announced that he's opening a concept devoted to fried chicken.

Chang's new restaurant will be called Fuku, and it already has a website up and running at eatfuku.com, though there's not really anything there yet. Fuku will be in the old space occupied by Chang's Momofuku Ko before it decamped for a bigger space in October. According to Eater, Fuku will be all about fried chicken.

"We're going to try to make the best fried chicken sandwich possible, and work with smartest people out there to make the best tech stuff for it," Chang said. The restaurant will also be getting a mobile app, and the tiny spot in the East Village will be a sort of testing ground for a bigger concept.

Chang told the SXSW audience that Fuku was inspired by Chick-Fil-A and In-N-Out, and the idea of how great it would be if a person could order a spicy chicken sandwich in In-N-Out's signature "animal" style.

Fuku could be the next Shake Shack, or it could fail miserably, but Chang seems pretty optimistic about the plan.

"If the fried chicken sandwich is fantastic, and if the app is fantastic, great," Chang said. "But if it bombs completely, great. Out of those ashes something amazing will happen."