Wisconsin now has its own outpost of one of South Korea’s biggest fried chicken exports. bb.q Chicken has opened its first franchise store in the state at 222 E. Erie St. in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward, moving into the storefront that spent the last eight years as the modern Korean restaurant Char’d.
The nearest previous bb.q Chicken location before this one sat in Waukegan, Illinois, according to Urban Milwaukee. As OnMilwaukee reports, the new store is run by Choonghoon Lee and Lane Kim, the same pair who operated Char’d in that same storefront before closing it at the end of May to make the switch to the franchise model. The chain’s name, pronounced bee-bee-que, stands for best of the best quality, and the brand now counts more than 3,500 locations across more than 50 countries, with over 250 of them in the United States.
From Lava Stones to a Global Franchise
Char’d had occupied the Erie Street space since 2018, establishing itself as the Third Ward’s pioneer Korean restaurant with lava-stone tabletop grilling and ssam plates, Hoodline previously reported on the restaurant’s closure. Its transformation into bb.q Chicken follows the owners’ plan to reopen the space as a franchise location. That shift illustrates a real tension in gentrifying urban neighborhoods like the Third Ward, where independent dining concepts increasingly compete with, or give way to, established franchise chains.
Founded in South Korea in 1995, bb.q Chicken built its reputation on a traditional double-frying method using a starch-based batter, meant to produce a light, shatteringly crisp exterior, per Urban Milwaukee’s reporting. The Milwaukee menu carries that signature technique across wing styles including honey garlic, spicy galbi, gang-jeong and cheesling, according to OnMilwaukee.
What’s on the Menu Beyond Wings
Beyond wings, the Erie Street menu includes ddeok-bokki made with rice cakes and fish cakes in a sweet and spicy chili sauce, along with a rosé version of the same dish, OnMilwaukee notes. The menu also includes French Fries, fried dumplings, pickled radish and kimchi fried rice…