After six and a half years on South Avenue, Brandie Rauber and Christina Wasson have finally found a bigger and better location for their popular village restaurant, BC’s Chicken Coop, now at 159 West Main Street.
Brandie and Chris opened The Coop in November 2010, jumping on the chance to take over the old pizza shop at 9 South Avenue shortly after it closed. Since then they’ve been cooking up the tastiest fried chicken and ribs this side of the Mississippi. (That’s not just my opinion. Their wings have won awards.)
Chris Wasson and Brandie Rauber at the new Coop
In the years since, they became strong Webster supporters, building the kind of rock-solid, community-focused business that Webster desperately needs.
But they also struggled at times with health and financial issues, and the small space they had to work with didn’t make things any easier.
Their perseverance was finally rewarded at the end of June when they moved into their beautiful new, bigger and more visible restaurant on West Main.
There’s a lot to love about the new place. For starters, it’s about twice the size of the South Avenue location, which means a much bigger kitchen and more than four times the seating capacity. That’s plenty of room for people to stretch out and relax with a soda or water while their dinner is being cooked up fresh.
There’s also a public bathroom and plenty of parking right outside the front door, two things they didn’t have at all before.
Chris and Brandie have had to make some adjustments as they settle in
. For example, on South Ave., everything was packaged for take-out, but now orders might need to be put in baskets to be served at a table. On the plus side, thanks to more storage space, now they have room to prepare some things ahead and don’t have to worry about running out of food.
What’s remained the same is the Coop’s outstanding menu. I’m a huge fan of their cornbread and juicy fried chicken, with a coating so flavorful I could eat all by itself. But their ribs and wings are also highly rated. And they cook everything to order, using locally-sourced products.
It’s been a tough road, but Brandie and Chris have finally found themselves — and the Coop — in a pretty good place right now.
Judging from the constant stream of customers in and out of the Coop before and after the Firemen’s Parade last Thursday, it’s clear lots of people are excited about the move. Some were perhaps discovering the Coop for the first time, now that it’s so much more visible and accessible.
It’s been a dream come true for Brandie and Chris, and they’re grateful to Webster for helping them get there.
“This was the end goal, to do something like this,” Brandie said.
“I think that all of Webster from the get-go has pulled for us,” Chris said. “They kept us alive so that we could do this and we were determined not to leave Webster because of it.”
“I think it’s going to be like this forever,” she added. I certainly hope so.
BC’s Chicken Coop is located at 159 West Main Street in Webster. Click here to visit their Facebook page, or call 585-265-1185.
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Tags: BC's Chicken Coop, Village of Webster
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