Readers say this new pop-up makes the Sacramento area’s best fried chicken

Baby’s Barbecue didn’t need much time to make an impression.

The Sacramento Bee’s readers voted the barbecue stand, which began hosting pop-ups outside Device Brewing’s midtown location in November, makers of the region’s best fried chicken in a weeklong Sacramento Bee poll that concluded on April 19.

More than 3,000 readers cast their votes, and exactly 900 (28.9%) picked Baby’s Barbecue’s fried chicken, cooked to golden-brown crispiness by Shane Allen and Nina Reyes. A Sacramento native, Allen started Baby’s Barbecue while in Oceanside after serving in the Marine Corps from 2012-16. He linked up with his fiancée’s friend Reyes, who had been hosting Filipino feasts called kamayans and selling her lumpia to-go, upon moving back up north at the start of the pandemic.

Nash & Proper, which started as a pop-up in 2018, finished second with 693 votes (22.2%). Cecil Rhodes and Jake Bombard’s Nashville-style chicken shop opened in downtown Sacramento last summer and recently announced an Elk Grove expansion, though the ever-popular food trucks remain circulating the region as well.

South was next with 11%, followed closely by write-in candidate Odd Cookie Bakery Cafe & Bar (10.4%). The two are a clear contrast of traditional and creative: a bucket derived from Louisiana-born South owner N’Gina Guyton’s mother’s recipe, or a sandwich filled with Frosted Flake-crusted chicken breasts and candied bacon, red onion and maple vinaigrette.

World Famous Hotboys (6.5%), Bawk (2.6%), Fixins Soul Kitchen (2.5%) and Origami Asian Grill (2.1%) rounded out the top eight.

This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.