David Chang Is Bringing The Fuku Experience To The Super Bowl 2024
It seems like the celebration around the Super Bowl gets bigger every year, and this year's party in Las Vegas is going to be full of culinary creations. The headlines in the news may be most focused on the Taylor Swift of it all, but on the ground, fans and attendees will be treated to events by food brands as divergent as Taco Bell, Pepsi, and Casamigos. There will also be events presented by some of the biggest culinary names in the U.S., like Bobby Flay and Momofuku founder David Chang, who will be hosting a pop-up of his chicken chain Fuku at Bud Light's Game Day Experience.
Chang's menu for the event will be a dipping-focused experience based around crispy chicken tenders and plant-based Impossible nuggets. There will be four dipping sauces available: a creamy and spicy house mayo, the restaurant's signature "Knockout Sauce," honey mustard, and ranch. The chicken will be served with a side of waffle fries, which Fuku's in-store menu normally serves five different varieties of. Chang will also be recording an episode of his podcast from the Super Bowl, where he will discuss game-day food and host a Lunar New Year Tailgate Challenge for two chefs to compete in.
David Chang's Fuku is looking to make a bigger splash in sports stadiums
Las Vegas and the Super Bowl are fitting places for Chang and Fuku to host an event because it has been at the center of his shifting focus. Chang closed two restaurants in Vegas in 2022, including his luxury Majordōmo Meat & Fish. In 2023, the Momofuku brand brought in new leadership to focus on expanding the more casual Fuku brand. The chicken concept started out as a "secret" sandwich within Momofuku noodle bar in 2015 before growing to 14 stand-alone locations in nine states. As the chain's business plan evolved, it has shown an increasing focus on expanding to concession stands in sports arenas as well, making the biggest sporting event in the U.S. a natural partner.
Fuku just recently opened one of its newest locations in Las Vegas a little more than a year after Chang shut down his previous restaurants. That spot is in T-Mobile Arena, which hosts the local NHL team, the Vegas Golden Knights, as well as UFC fighting events. Other recent expansions have come at TIAA Bank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Washington Commanders' FedEx Field. Even as stadium food has improved over the years, it's pretty unusual to see a celebrity chef focus so much on concession food, but we bet that if you're hungry at one of these stadiums, you're more than happy to see Fuku.