New Arndale chicken shop by YouTube supergroup The Sidemen to be opened by streamer Angry Ginge

A new fried chicken shop backed by popular YouTubers The Sidemen is gearing up to open at Manchester Arndale this weekend. 

Sides will officially open its doors on Saturday 25 November at 11am. It will be the first location outside London, where two restaurants opened last week to roaring success.

Some Sidemen fans queued up for 38 hours ahead of the Dalston launch, with queues over a mile long. The internet stars were advised by the local council not attend the Merry Hill launch as 10,000 people were predicted to turn up. 

The Sidemen will not be at the launch of the Arndale restaurant, but local streaming sensation Angry Ginge, famous for gaming streams and Manchester United reaction videos, will be there.  

What to expect?

The Arndale Sides will have enough room for around 40 customers in a 1400 square foot unit and will create 35 jobs.

It will be serving up a variety of double coated, crispy fried chicken dishes, as well as shakes and sides. The Sides’ Instagram highlights include an overview of some of the sauce flavours customers can choose, including classic bbq, sweet and spicy Louisiana, teriyaki, chipotle, XX buffalo, Korean BBQ and garlic vegan mayo. 

What do the owners say?

 Robin Mehta, Sides CEO, said of the new opening: “Manchester has been a location we have wanted to come to for a while now so we are delighted to welcome the city to the Sides community. We like to say that people will come for the hype, but come back for the food, and we feel as if this will be no different at the Arndale branch.

“If you think this brand is only about the Sidemen, you should get down and try the delicious, new and improved menu of freshly cooked, double coated crispy chicken, waffle fries, shakes and side dishes. Everyone at Sides is delighted with the growth of the company and we can’t wait to start serving up our flavourful fried chicken to the people of Manchester.” 

Who are The Sidemen?

The Sidemen are a group of viral internet stars with an eye-watering combined following of over 130million – more than double the amount of people living in the UK. 

They are Zerkaa (Josh Bradley), Miniminter (Simon Minter), TBJZL (Tobi Brown), KSI (Olajide “JJ” Olatunji), Behzinga (Ethan Payne), Vikkstar123 (Vikram Barn) and W2S (Harry Lewis). 

This is not the group’s first venture outside of internet fame. Some of their other projects include XIX Vodka and SDMN Clothing.