A teen and his hot chicken pop-up
Taking a splash of Nashville, this rising star spices up Niagara, southern style
Michael Cipollo wasn’t thinking about any shiny trinkets for himself when asked what he would do with his winnings from a competitive cooking show last year.
The chef-owner of HAMBRGR and Lost+Found Taqueria in St. Catharines was thinking about a bright future for his son, Matty, 17, instead.
Michael would spend his prize from a February 2020 episode of “Guy’s Grocery Games,” hosted by Food Network personality Guy Fieri, helping Matty launch his own career as a chef and restaurateur.
After all, signs were pointing to Michael’s boy having chops in the kitchen, be it the first time Matty helped Michael at home as a child, picking and prepping herbs for a family Thanksgiving, to hanging off the apron strings of his father at work.
“When you find someone who’s truly, truly passionate to be in the business, we have an innate obligation to foster that passion,” Michael said. “Anybody who has a trade has a responsibility to do the best they can do for those under them.”
Including going on national television to fund a Nashville hot-chicken inspired pop-up called Matty’s Hot Chicken, which launched — and sold out — last weekend in St. Catharines. A Hamilton edition is in the works in the weeks ahead, too.
Described as a north meets south hot chicken concept, Matty’s Hot Chicken pays homage to the family’s travels and sampling of a fried chicken style that’s among the Athens of the South’s culinary headliners.
The story goes that the invention of Nashville hot chicken was one woman’s way of exacting revenge on her cheating husband, James Thornton Prince. After a night of gallivanting, the slighted missus made Prince fried chicken for breakfast and cooked it with hot pepper to return some of pain she felt.
Prince liked it, though — so much so he perfected the recipe for it and started selling breasts, thighs and wings soaked in a water-based marinade before deep frying and covering in a cayenne pepper paste.
Hot chicken is traditionally served on white bread and topped with pickle chips. As such it’s become a staple on menus in Nashville and beyond in the 76 years since Prince’s fateful first bite.
It wasn’t a hard sell for Matty to put his name and efforts behind a hot chicken business, either.
“Who doesn’t love hot chicken?” he said. “It’s fried chicken.”
Still, getting to this point wasn’t easy, game show winnings and industry connections for the Cipollos aside.
After the filming for “Guy’s Grocery Games” in early 2019, the family returned home to Hamilton and started planning Matty’s venture. They contemplated launching a food truck but with bricks and mortar establishments in their portfolio — Michael also founded HAMBRGR’s Hamilton location and the now-shuttered Fsh & Chp — it seemed like a step backwards.
They worked on branding, a menu and finding a permanent location for Matty instead. Meanwhile, Cipollo worked toward opening his latest dining room, UnDefined, a “refined, casual dining” spot on King William Street in Hamilton.
Then the pandemic happened. The family was forced to hit pause and join in the pivoting that 2020 forced everyone in hospitality to do if they wanted their businesses to survive.
“Playing the hand we were dealt, we thought let’s get started on Matty’s and do a pop-up while people are doing takeout and delivery,” Michael said.
They had the space for it. Michael made room in his Lost+Found kitchen in St. Catharines for Matty to cook and launch last weekend alongside turning out a limited selection of the taqueria’s tortillawrapped standards. In Hamilton, he’ll use the space at UnDefined until a launch for that becomes more definite.
It supports his son’s ambitions, but starting Matty’s Hot Chicken during a pandemic that’s left thousands of hospitality workers furloughed and unemployed was as much an exercise in supporting Michael’s restaurant staff.
“It’s very hard to look at your team and say we only need so many of you now. Part of this was ‘Let’s get people OK.’ Never mind the government programs out there. It’s important to support humans as humans, never mind financially …
Let’s get people out of the house and support them mentally,” Michael said.
And support them in their adventures as eaters. For hot chicken newbies, father and son recommend starting with the Down South or mild heat levels. The more daring can seek out the Scovilles on the upper tier of the Matty’s heat chain, Hot AF.
Because hot chicken is as much a process as a fried chicken style, Michael explained, vegetarians can get Nashville’d in St. Catharines with an order of the OG Hot Tots, hot chicken-style tater tots.
Fried chicken sandwiches clocking different heat levels round out the poultry-by-the-piece menu. And in another nod to southern fare, Kreamy Krisp yeast doughnuts, inspired by the New Orleansborn Krispy Kreme chain, are available for some taste bud TLC after a cayenne pepper-laced meal.
Inspired by watching his dad in the kitchen, Matty, who launched his eponymous venture while on a high school co-op term, only wants to exceed the skills his mentor has bestowed upon him in the kitchen and as a business person.
He’ll divide his time between St. Catharines and Hamilton each week — once he’s finished his online Grade 12 classes each day. In the process, he’ll continue carving out a career in an industry he already knows he adores.
“(The kitchen) is just a place I can clear my head. I can get in the zone and be there for for hours and hours,” Matty said. “It’s relief in my head. I’ve enjoyed it since a very young age so why not do it as a career?”