No bread crumbs and house-made products: Fried chicken restaurant opens in Myrtle Beach
The Grand Strand has its share of fast food restaurants specializing in fried chicken, so it would be difficult to introduce an original concept to the market.
Yet Barrie Nadi and his son Joseph opened a new fast food eatery Dec. 15 on South Kings Highway that has some processes and house-made items specific to their new restaurant, Prime Chicken.
The Myrtle Beach restaurant pressure-fries chicken and pork ribs; uses patented breading that doesn’t include bread crumbs; makes house-recipe buttermilk biscuits every 15 minutes; and has a number of other house-made products.
The menu might be familiar to diners from New York and New Jersey. Barrie Nadi sold them at Texas Chicken restaurants in those states, ultimately building 18 locations at its peak before selling out of the chain.
Prime Chicken offerings
The restaurant does not use bread crumbs or batter. The chicken and ribs are marinated at least 12 hours overnight then lightly coated in a flour-based seasoning called Texas Breading.
All of the fried foods are cooked in liquid soybean oil in pressure cookers, not in open fryers, and Nadi believes the method provides more consistency. He also believes bread crumbs hold oil and can cause the chicken to be more greasy.
Barrie Nadi and his family have been making their Texas Breading since 1978 at a factory in New Jersey, which is run by another of Nadi’s sons, Giorgio. The breading is sold to other restaurants, primarily in the Northeast, as well as to consumers online.
Nadi said his meats are purchased from Prestige Farms in Murrells Inlet and are never frozen.
Two chicken sandwiches with brioche buns can be ordered spicy or mild. There is also a grilled pressed chicken panini sandwich with cilantro paste.
Prime also offers a salad with a choice of dressings, sides (such as mashed potatoes with gravy, macaroni and cheese and house-made fruit tarts) and a house-made garlic mayonnaise sauce for dipping.
Prime brews its own sweet and unsweetened iced tea, Three drinks mixed at the restaurant are a grape punch, orange punch and virgin coconut colada.
Opening in Myrtle Beach
Barrie and Joseph Nadi moved to Myrtle Beach from New York City about 10 years ago. Joseph is a Socastee High graduate and Barrie opened and operated the Ocean 17 fine-dining French steakhouse from 2011-13 on Restaurant Row.
Barrie Nadi sold a sweet potato fries factory in North Carolina as well as his Texas Chicken restaurants and decided to get back into the restaurant business after a short break.
Prime Chicken’s building at 23rd Ave. South on South Kings Highway formerly housed a Bojangles. The building has been renovated with new electric and plumbing systems and wifi. The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating.
“My goal is to give people something different. It’s more of an open atmosphere,” Nadi said. “Why do you have to look like a greasy chicken house?”
The Nadis say Prime Chicken has been well received with repeat customers in its first couple of weeks. “We’ve found people really like the flavor,” Joseph said.
They already have a second Prime Chicken planned farther north in Myrtle Beach, and hope to expand further.
