Business & Tech
Wally's Chicken Coop Comes to Storrs
The Coop is a recent addition to the College Square Plaza.
Wally’s Chicken Coop is not your normal sit down and eat restaurant. Instead of tables and chairs, Wally’s is decorated with a long wooden bench where customers can sit down and eat chicken bits and French fries out of a paper bag. But with handful of chicken restaurants around the Storrs area, one might wonder what makes this new joint special.
“It’s all homemade,” says Mike Natale, co-owner of Wally’s. Specializing in “chicken bits,” which Natale describes as handcrafted chicken nuggets cut from whole breast chicken and made fresh daily, Wally’s Chicken Coop offers a variety of chicken sandwiches, meal combos that include their house-made chicken bits and a side of French fries as well as breakfast sandwiches.
With the average price of each meal around $6 or $7, “it’s fairly priced,” says Matt Jerrild, a UConn student as well as a first-time customer to Wally’s Chicken Coop, who ordered The Mongo, described as a large order of chicken bits with a large order of fries and a can of soda.
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The Coop attracts UConn students looking for an affordable, tasty bite, and with the restaurant just a little over one week old, the line of students speaks volumes to the quality of the food.
“[Business] is going pretty good,” says Natale. “It’s fun, it’s fun with the kids, they have a good time. We have a good atmosphere here.”
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In response to their feelings towards past failures of other restaurants that have tried to stay alive in the same location, the brothers don’t seem too worried. “It doesn’t scare us at all,” says Natale. “We’re hard working guys and we just want to make a dollar for our kids and have some fun while we’re doing it.”
Although Natale along with his twin brother, Jeff Natale are co-owners of Wally’s Chicken Coop, the actual Wally is a 120 lb Bernese mountain dog who has been in the Natale family for three years.
Wally’s Chicken Coop is located on North Eagleville Road, right beside . Hours are Mon-Wed 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. – 1 a.m., Fri-Sat 11 a.m. – 2:30 a.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Order at 860-477-0838.
