Where Frybaby’s Sunny Hatch Eats in Portland

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For 11 years, Frybaby’s Sunny Hatch tended bars all over Portland, from Hey Love to Double Barrel Tavern to Alibi. During quarantine, an idea popped into his head. “The initial goal was just to add one more Korean restaurant to Portland proper,” says Hatch. He reached out to Sunshine Noodle’s Diane Lam for cooking lessons. He enrolled in a business class. He Facebook messaged Kim Jong Grillin’s Han Ly Hwang for advice, leading to a two-hour phone call that Hatch refers to as “the reason Frybaby exists.”

In 2023, Frybaby was named Eater Portland’s Best New Food Cart and Oregonian’s Food Cart of the Year. This month marks Frybaby’s two-year anniversary — and the little cart in the Lil’ America pod is still dreaming big. “I’ve just been so grateful for all the accolades,” says Hatch. “We’re maxing out the cart, which is awesome. Hopefully looking to expand more in the future.”

Hatch says the long-term goal for Frybaby is a fast-food chain model akin to Filipino fried chicken franchise Jollibee. “There’s a lot of fast-casual places, like Chimcking and Bonchon, but there’s no Korean Popeyes,” says Hatch. “That would be the dream: a drive-thru.”

We caught up with Hatch over breakfast at Pie Spot to talk about his lifelong affinity for Popeyes, his favorite late-night comfort food, and “the most absurd thing” he’s ever eaten.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How much free time do you have to eat out?

SH: Almost none. I have Mondays off. Breakfast is a really big thing. [Pie Spot] is my work breakfast. I get the sandwich once a week, sometimes twice. I do go out to dinner occasionally with my girlfriend Sarah or Han — my mentor, closest homie, and grumpy older brother. He’s the king of the carts.

Thom Hilton

Where do you guys go out?

We eat a lot of pizza. Vincenzo’s. Super solid. I can’t say I know a lot about pizza. My favorite pizza in the world is pan-crust from Domino’s. You can taste how engineered it is. But it’s engineered so beautifully.

Domino’s comes up in this column a lot.

That’s hilarious, I love that. I mean, that makes sense. Like fried chicken, for me, I don’t really eat a lot other than Popeyes.

What’s your favorite Popeyes location?

My two favorites are the furthest north on MLK (they’re more consistent and busier) and the one on Foster and 82nd. They’re doing something.

Why is Popeyes your chicken of choice?

I love the flavor profile of the batter. And I love the spicy chicken. I just like a three-piece spicy. It’s so good, without being as insanely greasy as Church’s or KFC. I really want to redo the KFC bowl, with mashed potatoes and popcorn chicken and Korean corn cheese.

At Popeyes, I always get mashed potatoes and gravy so I can dip the chicken in. And I always get Cajun Sparkle, a seasoning packet that’s not on the menu. I don’t know how I found out, but growing up, I always asked for it.

Off-menu stuff at Popeyes is great, like when they offer you jelly for your biscuits.

I love that they have jelly, honey, hot sauce, all these extra things. I’d like to see the usage of all those extra things the further north you get. I was raised on Popeyes. I grew up in Dallas, Texas. There’s one everywhere, there’s one down the street from my house. My mom did not want me to be Korean. She tried to feed me as much American food as possible. We ate Hungry Man dinners, hot dogs, mac and cheese.

This is actually not a Popeyes interview.

I ride for them. I would do marketing campaigns for them. I love Popeyes.

Are you a breakfast sandwich guy in general? Is there another one you love in Portland besides Pie Spot?

The craziest option is from Cheryl’s. They make a breakfast sandwich out of an apple fritter. It’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever eaten. It’s so good.

Camille Bruya

Suzi Pratt / EPDX

Where do you like to get coffee?

I really love Less and More, Kalesa, Portland Ca Phe. I think it’s cool that there’s a big Asian coffee wave. I love everybody doing, like, weird fruit coffee stuff.

Are there any restaurants in Portland you feel really aligned with personally, that you return to for inspiration or comfort?

My comfort places have a lot of chaos going on. Throughout college, I’d do homework at dive bars. The place I really like going if I get off work late is Utopia on 82nd Ave. It’s a Vietnamese video lottery-slash-DIY karaoke restaurant. You can get Bún bò Huế til 2 in the morning, which I think is the craziest thing in the world.

My ultimate comfort food is phở, I eat it all the time. I think my favorite is Mekha on Sandy. It’s so done up, it’s my favorite. I used to live one block away, and when I was a bartender, I would eat that like two or three times a week, which is way too many times to eat phở a week.