Slideshows

Slideshow: Friday’s Preview Party for Pecking Order Chicken

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“I’m going to get my ass kicked tomorrow,” Kristine Subido said more than once as she greeted guests to her preview party on Friday, the last day before she opened for business on Saturday. As previews go Friday’s was a cozy, low-key event for friends and media, but besides offering tastes of the chicken, marinated in Subido’s mother’s spice recipe and offered fried, grilled or roasted, it gave a good sense of how this spot may draw crowds and, ultimately, new restaurants and businesses to an obscure, but very centrally located, stretch of Clark Street between Lakeview and Uptown. Take a look at the chicken and get hungry; they’re closed today but will reopen for dinner tomorrow, and start lunch in about a month or so.

Pecking Order, 4416 N. Clark. The front room is sunny and great for a quick lunch.
The back bar is more like a Filipino-tinged take on a Wisconsin tavern.
Mama Subido holding court in back.
Three housemade condiments are on every table— banana ketchup (invented because tomatoes were rare in the Phillipines), P.O.S., a vinegary sort of gravy with chicken liver in it, and cane vinegar with red peppers.
A sample of the fried chicken…
…and one of the grilled chicken, both very flavorful.
Chef/owner Kristine Subido with well-wishers (that’s Roderick Markus of Rare Tea Cellars at right).
A Filipino take on arancini.
The team behind Pecking Order’s graphics— Gregg and Tonya Tomlinson of Fathead Design.
Slideshow: Friday’s Preview Party for Pecking Order Chicken