Fuku Takes a Two-Day Break Following Finger Lickin' Lines Stretching 'Round the Block

A crispy, golden poultry bomb exploded in the New York dining world last week with the opening of Dave Chang's fried chicken sandwich atelier, Fuku. The new restaurant in the old Momofuku Ko space easily ranks among Chang's all-time biggest surprises, right up there with shaved foie gras, Beef Seven Ways, and MomoAustralia.

After a well-attended opening day, hordes of chicken fiends made the trip down to the East Village over the weekend to sample Chang's newest crunchy creation. The lines were so long that Schnitz, a fried cutlet sandwich shop on the corner of 11th Street and First Avenue, tried to get a piece of the action:

[A for effort, Schnitz, but maybe you should try using a Martin's potato roll next time. Photo by Nick Solares]

Due to the high on Friday, the restaurant actually limited the number of sandwiches per customer to six:

nyc: to help expedite the lines, we're capping fuku chicken sandwiches at 6 per person. see you soon, EV.

— momofuku (@momofuku) June 12, 2015

The Fuku homepage notes that while there is no explicit limit, the restaurant "reserves the right to cap the number of sandwiches per individual" in order to "help ensure all guests are served in a timely manner." Eater has reached out to Momo HQ to see if the limit is in fact only temporary, or if the six sandwich maximum rule will become part of the standard operating procedure. UPDATE: See the note at the bottom of this post!

That's the line for David Changs new chicken spot Fuku in NYC. 6 chicken limit for each order. Did not hop in line, maybe Sunday!

A photo posted by Sue Bette (@bluebirdvermont) on Jun 12, 2015 at 11:44am PDT

Sadly, even if you wanted to eat one or six of those sandwiches today, that's not actually possible because the restaurant is closed till Wednesday:

nyc: fuku will be closed monday / tuesday and reopen at 11am on wednesday. thanks to everyone who came out for our first week at 163.

— momofuku (@momofuku) June 15, 2015

Eater critics Robert Sietsema and Ryan Sutton filed their first impressions of KFChang's $8 sandwich last week. Stay tuned for more news from the eye of the Fuku storm as it becomes available.

UPDATE, 12:10 p.m. on Monday: A rep from Fuku Command Center clarifies the stipulations of the per-person sandwich limit. Turns out it's not a fixed cap:

While there is no set maximum, we are working to be able to provide alternatives for guests who would like to place large scale orders while not impacting the overall timeliness of our current operation. At the moment, we reserve the right to cap the number of sandwiches per person to ensure that all guests are served in a timely manner. During service on Friday, we briefly limited sandwiches to 6 per person in order to do so, and then shortly afterwards resumed accommodating all orders.

The eventual large-scale orders will surely change office lunching in New York City forever.  Stay tuned for more dispatches from the recently established Fuku Nation.