Orange Live has been an entity in the community for 10 years, and in that time we’ve shared thousands of stories with you. But it’s been years since we’ve done a restaurant review.
My daughter, granddaughter and I all have different tastes in food. I Love a good prime rib, my daughter is into good Indian food and my granddaughter is a vegetarian (Not Vegan) so when we go out to dinner together, it’s sometimes difficult to choose a place where we can find something on the menu to make each of us happy.
My granddaughter often is delighted if a perfect grilled cheese is offered, It’s hard for me because I take care of her when she has days off from school and during the summer. I don’t want her to fill up on bread and cheese every day, though, so what’s a Yia Yia to do?
So, imagine my surprise when, in mid June, I walked into the new Haven Hot Chicken in the Trader Joe’s Plaza, 550 Boston Post Road (Don’t drive around the parking lot, looking for it along all the storefronts), just pull in to the big “parking lot side” of Mission BBQ and there it is a little 1,400 sq ft brightly lit restaurant with lots of smiling faces and a pleasingly compact menu.
I don’t eat spicy food, my daughter prefers it, and my granddaughter, well she doesn’t eat anything with a face. So, what could we possibly get from Haven Hot Chicken?
The Menu
The full menu can be found on the restaurant website.
Co-owner Etkin Tekin greeted me at the door and spoke to me about the business. I explained my family dynamics and concerns about finding something to eat at a place called Haven Hot Chicken – with “spicy” being the first thing to come to mind,
He directed my gaze to the “Heat Level” chart. “Country” (no spice) – that’s me; “Mild” (hint of spice); Medium (proper spice); “Hot” (will burn) – my daughter; Haven (for the hot head)- she also could handle this.
“We offer a very straight forward, simple menu,” Tekin said. “THE Sandwich is the most popular item: a buttermilk marinated boneless chicken breast topped with Cole Slaw, Rob Sauce (sweet, savory, tangy) and thick cut pickles on a potato bun. It’s super delicious and everything is super fresh, and the chicken can be ordered in any heat level you prefer.”
Haven also offers “Not Chicken” that you wouldn’t know is actually roasted Cauliflower and a lot of side dishes, including Mac and cheese, Cole slaw, and French fries.
The menu boasts a number of dipping sauces, including the before mentioned Rob Sauce, Blue Cheese, Honey, Sweet Sauce, Pancake syrup (think southern cuisine) and house RANCH. “Our RANCH is in all caps, fantastic! It’s a must-try for dipping fries in,” Tekin said.
He shared an insider secret with me and it’s too good not to share with YOU. Anywhere else, Banana pudding would be considered a dessert item, but at Haven, it’s a side dish! “When you’re eating spicy chicken, the perfect way to cool down between bites is a scoop of banana pudding, and you’re good to go,” Tekin said. “It’s a great contrast between spicy and savory to sweet and cool and refreshing.”
You won’t find Chicken TendeRs at Haven. Here, they call them Tendies, — “We like to be whimsical,” Tekin said. — They’re not thin, or tiny or made of compacted processed chicken product — each Tendie is a large juicy, perfectly cooked tender piece of real fresh chicken and, it is So Good! And of course you can order it mild to volcano hot.
I ordered the Tendie Trio (country – no heat), with Mac and Cheese, Banana Pudding, Fries – hit with some shake (some sort of hot pepper powder), and had Rob Sauce, Pancake syrup, RANCH and Blue Cheese dipping sauces. I shared these with my daughter and granddaughter on the “little” girl’s last day of school and asked for their input.
I loved the chicken, it was just perfect in every way. The Mac and cheese was al dente not mushy with just the right amount of cheese not runny. The pudding had generous slices of banana and was topped with whipped cream, cool and delicious. My granddaughter finished the Mac and cheese and kept digging into the pudding until all of the banana slices and whipped cream were gone. She posed for photos eating the French fries and kept telling me that she didn’t like the angle of the photo, etc, as a way of getting to reach in and grab another fry – the spicy “shake” didn’t bother her at all.
My daughter was impressed with the size and taste of the Tendies, but would have preferred a Hot or Haven breading. By the way the RANCH sauce disappeared, I get the feeling that this was her favorite of the sauces, along with the Rob Sauce.
Their T-shirt says it all, “Crispy, crunchy, juicy, spicy, delicious,” which is what they strive for, and repeat customers have come to appreciate.
From Concept To Opening A Business
Haven Hot Chicken has four partners Etkin Tekin, Jason Sobocinski, Craig Sklar, and Rob LaTronica, for whom the “Rob Sauce” is named. Their path to business ownership is like a Hallmark Movie script, full of wonder, hope and a very happy ending.
As Etkin told me, they had all been to Nashville, TN and loved Nashville hot chicken (spicy with a very specific way of preparing their chicken) so in early 2019, they began playing with hundreds of recipes until they found the right one that was heatable and scaleable and began doing pop-ups in New Haven, partnering with bars and restaurants, taking over the kitchen on the business’s slowest day of the week selling food, while the bar continued to sell alcohol to its customers.
The pop-ups became so popular that the partners were doubling the amount of food they were preparing and they kept selling out. Then — THE PANDEMIC HIT. in the summer of 2020, at a time when most small businesses were suffering and some even closed because of Covid’s impact, the “boys” found a location in New Haven and prepared to open their first restaurant. In October, 2020 as the Delta Variant surged, Haven Hot Chicken opened on Whitney Avenue in New Haven.
“We were off to the races immediately,” Tekin said. “We were busy every day, and month after month we continued to build and after about 8 months in New Haven, we had people clamoring for us to open [a restaurant] in their town. So we started thinking about expanding.”
“We really liked the Boston Post Road and we really liked the Orange/Milford area,” he said. “This was perfect with the big parking lot, it makes things convenient for our customers.”
Haven is a Take-out and Delivery only restaurant, they don’t take phone orders, so place your order online or visit the store in person.
Hours are Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Friday -Saturday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.