Danbury Chicken Spot Says They Are Getting Pickup Orders from Norwalk

Their chicken is so good, people are driving from Norwalk to get it.

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This is Po-Yo, if you live in Dowtown Danbury, or if you've listened to my radio show (The Ethan and Lou Show on I-95), you already know about it. For those who don't, this is what you need to know.

• Po-Yo is a dine-in/takeout restaurant that sells some of the best rotissierie chicken in Danbury.
• Po-Yo is the sister (co-op) restaurant to Empire of the Incas.
• Empire of the Incas is a Peruvian restaurant on Main Street.
• Before Po-Yo opened, they were selling these takeout chickens at Empire of the Incas and the product was so good, it was causing traffic problems.
• Now the chickens are sold across the street at Po-Yo and it's alleviated the traffic while keeping Danbury chicken lovers happy.
• Po-Yo is located at 274 Main Street.
• Empire of the Incas is located at 241 Main Street.
• My wife and I love both spots.

Now, Po-Yo says the word has gotten out about the quality of their chicken, way out. According to a recent Po-Yo Instagram post, the restaurant is "receiving pickup orders from as far as Norwalk, CT to secure our DANGEROUSLY MOUTHWATERING CHICKEN."

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One local commented "I believe it." So do I, you cannot believe how good the chicken is at Po-Yo and Empire of the Incas. I highly recommend both, and trust me there is plenty of parking.

I realized as I was writing this, that I didn't actually know how/why Po-Yo was born. I'd heard that they started it because Empire of the Incas was so busy, because they needed more room, and because the car line for chicken was causing traffic delays.

But, these were all just rumors I'd heard around town. So I reached out to a friend who put me in touch with one of the family members. His name is Bryant Aliagia, and I asked him to please fill me in on how Po-Yo came to be. This is what Bryant told me:

"Great speaking to you earlier today. As mentioned, I figured I’d discuss the whole story and reason we decided to dedicate a new home for our “Pollo a la Brasa” (rotisserie chicken) at Po-Yo.

During the pandemic we made BIG changes to Empire of the Inca’s exterior and interior space (with help from the city’s facade improvement grant program). With the recent changes, people thought it was a completely new restaurant from a new owner, but we kept telling people, we’ve been here since 2005. The renovation made our business much more welcoming when passing by, much more than the brick facade and tinted windows that’s for sure. People even mentioned that our new business looks like it’s from Stamford or NYC.

With these changes we saw more people interested in trying out our Peruvian food, since now they can actually see what we have to offer when walking or driving by. Having new customers, it became exceedingly difficult for our staff, both wait staff and kitchen workers, to balance their time between to-go orders (mainly rotisserie chicken) and table orders.

The wait staff would be on the phone or dispatching pickup orders instead of committing most of their time to the customers dinning at the restaurant. In addition, the kitchen dealt with a huge challenge by keeping up with dine in orders and the to-go rotisserie chicken orders (constantly having to stop cooking to refilling the rotisserie chicken machine).

We had the idea to add more burners to get dishes out faster, but because of the large amount of space the rotisserie chicken machine takes, this wouldn’t be possible. Due to the layout of the building, expanding the kitchen wasn’t an option either.

Once my father, David, mentioned that there was a space available across the street we all agreed (including my sister), which is rare, dedicating a space for our popular to-go item, would solve all these problems. This would allow us to add burners to the kitchen to keep up with the higher demand of customers and provide the BEST quality of service possible.

Today, we are so thankful that we’ve made this decision, since it would be impossible to provide both our rotisserie chicken and menu items from one location. The rotisserie chicken has always been our number one item before and during the pandemic, it has saved our business on many occasions over the previous years. With that said, it’s been really satisfying to give our rotisserie chicken its own prominent space here at Po-Yo.

We are proud to say during the weekdays we now typically sell over one hundred whole chickens daily and about one hundred and fifty chickens each day during the weekends."

P.S. If you go to Empire, order the Tallarin Verde Con Bistec, it's a Peruvian style pesto pasta with pan-fried steak and it's my favorite. If you go to Po-Yo, get a whole chicken and a Taco-Matic. Now I'm starving.