Gonzo Burger Brand Meatliquor Will Rebrand Its Lone Brixton Chicken Shop

Brixton’s CHICKENliquor closed yesterday and will remain so for a week while the site undergoes some moderate refurbishments. It is due to reopen, and will be renamed MEATliquor, on Thursday 23 November. The new venue will replace the chicken-led menu with the full Meatliquor burger, wings and sides offering.

Scott Collins, MEATliquor co-founder and MD said: “We are constantly updating our venues and offering to make sure they never get tired, and now it’s CHICKENliquor’s turn. With art created by I Love Dust and shiny new grills, the venue will be given a loving face lift. Once reopened the venue will be a fully functioning MEATliquor.”

Given the well documented difficulties facing the area of the market occupied by this — one of London’s first homegrown fast casual success stories — Eater London asked Collins whether the re-brand was part of a wider plan to unite all the company’s affiliates to prime the business for sale?

“Nope,” he said. “[That] can be the case. Not in this case. [It’s] A distraction having a different offering when there’s demand for the main one.

“In addition, [we’re] doing lots of ‘house keeping’ — looking at all the details, that’s where the devil is — as it’s a turbulent market, so [we] want to be ready.”

There are 11 MEATliquor sites nationwide (nine of which are in London), plus a MEAT Mission in Shoreditch and MEAT Market in Covent Garden. The company started in 2009 with a street food van, the MEAT Wagon before a game-changing, hashtag-first pop-up in a New Cross pub called the #MEATEASY.