Your New Favourite Chicken Shop Quietly Opened Inside Good Days Hot Bread

By day, Good Days Hot Bread on Sydney Road, Brunswick, is all about flavour-packed banh mi made with high-quality ingredients. By night, the space transforms into Season Chargrilled Chicken Service, a Southeast Asian pop-up that’s quickly becoming a go-to for charred birds and fried chicken sandwiches.

The concept comes from Good Days founder Nam Nguyen. “We were only running lunch,” he says of his banh mi shop. “It just wasn’t viable. We had a full kitchen sitting idle, a great team needing more hours, and I’d been dreaming of doing a chicken shop for years.”

Season has a tight, smart offering of chargrilled chicken, fried tenders served on their own or as part of a burger, and three sides: chips, salad and rice. To make the chargrilled chicken, birds are brined for 48 hours in a fragrant mix of lemongrass, shallots, ginger and coriander, then roasted and finished on the grill. The result is juicy, smoky chicken. It’s served with pickled salad, rice cooked in broth, and two sauces: one red, punchy and sweet; the other herbaceous and green, made with Thai basil and Vietnamese coriander. Since launching just shy of a year ago, Season has found its audience. The team moves through around 100 of these chargrilled chickens a week.

The double-fried chicken sandwich is also hard to ignore. Spicy tenders, kimchi mayo, American cheese, tomato, pickled daikon and a coriander gremolata, all packed into a soft Martin’s potato roll. Add a cold beer – crisp Orion on tap – or a low-intervention wine and dinner’s sorted.

With Season, Good Days joins the cohort of daytime venues, including Florian and Ophelia, that have introduced nighttime offerings. “This isn’t about opening more venues,” Nguyen says. “It’s about using what we’ve got, being flexible, giving our staff hours and offering something that still feels exciting.

“A lot of people are struggling. I think it’s important we talk more about how we’re adapting. For us, it wasn’t about doing more, it was about doing things differently. We had the staff, we had the space, and we had to make it work. Season Chicken gave us that chance to keep going, and to keep our team going, too.”

Season doesn’t take bookings. It’s just takeaway, a few dine-in seats and plenty of juicy birds.

Season Chargrilled Chicken Service
Inside Good Days Hot Bread
644 Sydney Road, Brunswick
(03) 9370 4148

Hours:
Tue to Wed 5pm–8.30pm
Thu to Sat 5pm–9pm
@season_chicken_service