New Orleans Fried Chicken Hero Willie Mae’s Opens for Delivery Tomorrow in LA

New Orleans fried chicken legend Willie Mae’s is still planning to open its doors to the Venice community sometime later this fall or early winter, but it seems the family-run company just can’t hide its Los Angeles expansion excitement. Ahead of the launch of the full-fledged sit-down Westside restaurant, one of the year’s most anticipated projects, the family behind Willie Mae’s is launching a takeout and delivery menu out of Colony, the West LA shared kitchen and pickup space. That means that starting tomorrow, September 16, diners will be able to get actual Willie Mae’s fried chicken (and other food) delivered right to their doors — a first for the restaurant, and a big deal for Angelenos.

The new Colony arm of Willie Mae’s LA expansion was actually scheduled to open after the Venice restaurant debut, but delays have flipped the timing around slightly. “As we have all learned over the past two years, it’s important to be able to adapt,” says New Orleans owner Kerry Seaton-Stewart, great-granddaughter to Willie Mae Seaton herself, in a statement to Eater. Seaton-Stewart acknowledges that this first delivery and pickup menu will be “limited” compared to the original New Orleans restaurant and the upcoming brick-and-mortar Los Angeles one — but it will offer the staples that the James Beard-winning restaurant has become known for. That means a trio of bone-in fried chicken, baked chicken dishes, and fried chicken tenders, as well as staple sides like the restaurant’s butter beans, red beans, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese.

Once fully arrived at 324 Lincoln Boulevard later this year, expect Seaton-Stewart, as well as partners Mike Stewart, Lowell Sharron (HiHo Cheeseburger, Uovo, Matu), and Jerry Greenberg (also of HiHo Cheeseburger, Uovo, and Matu, as well as Sushi Nozawa Group) to bring the full weight of the New Orleans restaurant’s prodigious menu to bear. That will mean dishes like gumbo as well as its fried chicken, cultivated over the past 65 years as the legendary restaurant moved from local favorite to a nationally recognized destination.

For its part, Colony Kitchen is an increasingly influential shared kitchen space for Los Angeles, offering takeout and delivery versions of some of the city’s biggest restaurant names like Trejos Tacos, Western Bagel, Filipino rice bowl hit Oi Asion Fusion, sandwich sensation Carla Cafe, and Canter’s Deli, to name a few. Eager diners can find Willie Mae’s dishes there beginning tomorrow, with delivery also available via Postmates and Uber Eats.