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A fried chicken and wine festival in Sydney’s Inner West

Cake Wines teams up with Mary’s, Butter and more for Birds of the Inner West.

Butter's fried chicken sandwich

Courtsey of Butter

Cake Wines teams up with Mary’s, Butter and more for Birds of the Inner West.

Birds of the Inner West, a food and wine festival featuring several of Sydney’s fried bird purveyors matched with plenty of pour from Cake Wines, is back this month for a second round.

Back in July, Birds of Redfern festival sold out of chicken burgers almost entirely in the first few hours. This time around, Cake Wines and festival co-founder, self-professed “wing king” and GT contributor, Andrew Levins, have fine-tuned the event by relocating to the much larger Public House Petersham and splitting the day into two ticketed sessions.

“The first one was manic,” says Levins. “We were learning how to run a fried chicken festival as we were running a fried chicken festival. This time there’s just more of everything: more vendors, more bars, more space, more chicken.”

The line-up includes five of Sydney’s established fried chicken joints, with fried chicken sandwiches and burgers leading the way from Newtown favourite Mary’s and Surry Hills’s Butter. The Erskineville Hotel’s Southern-style smoked buffalo wings will also make an appearance, as will Public House’s own take on the bird. There’s even a chocolate fried chicken dessert with candied double-smoked speck and maple from Down N’ Out. For Levins, Belly Bao’s fried chicken “baoger” is the pick of the pack: “[It’s] definitely the fried chicken I’ve eaten the most in the last two years,” he says.

Cake Wines will pour their Art Series wines throughout, though if you prefer a brew with your burger, Public House specialises in craft beers. Come nightfall, DJs will transform the car park into a dancefloor – expect at least one round of the Chicken Dance.

Birds of the Inner West, Sunday 23 October,Public House Petersham.292 Stanmore Rd, Petersham, NSW. Tickets are $15 for each session; 12pm-3pm and 4pm-7pm. For tickets visit: cakewines.com/blogs/thingswedo/birds-of-the-inner-west

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