Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith — the husband-and-wife team who founded ice cream brand Ample Hills — are ready to move onto their next concept. They are planning to introduce a new concept, Ramblin’ Chick, to the community.
“We wanted to take the things we learned [at Ample Hills] and the things that we loved about storytelling and community and building places where people can gather, but we wanted to pivot to a different kind of food,” Smith told What Now New York.
Ramblin’ Chick will be a twist on classic American fast-food items, such as burgers, hot dogs, fries and shakes. Their goal is ambitious: to reinvent what defines the traditional American burger, with chicken.
The Ramblin’ Chick Instagram page describes the brand as the “home of the Cracklin’ Chicken Smash Burger.” Ramblin’ Chick will offer items like chicken burgers and chicken hot dogs.
“It’s not something that anybody has ever really said the words and salivated over or created any kind of excitement about,” Smith said. “A chicken burger has always been a poor cousin to a turkey burger, which in turn is a poor cousin to a beef burger.”
However, they were attracted to the challenge of transforming an item characteristically less popular than a traditional beef burger into the star of the brand.
“It’s something that feels special and different and something I can’t find anywhere in the American landscape of food right now,” Smith said.
The duo drew inspiration for the brand story from Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land is Your Land,” focusing on lines like “I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps.” Smith sees Ramblin’ Chick as a unifying, community-oriented brand — something that they hope to emphasize in their forthcoming brick-and-mortar location.
“We loved the wanderlust and the community feeling of an America without red states and blue states, an America without borders, that connects people through food,” Smith said. “The inspiration was an old-style American roadside hamburger joint, but all through the prism of chicken.”
Though they are still searching for a permanent spot for the brand, they are targeting Gowanus. The neighborhood is close to their heart, serving as the location of the second Ample Hills shop. They view Brooklyn as their family, and they want to create a spot with plenty of seating where people can gather.
Smith said they are aiming for a pre-Super Bowl opening in early 2026.
Though they will start with one location, the team wants to build a major brand around Ramblin’ Chick. They are on a journey to introduce a new way of thinking about the chicken burger, and they are starting with a pop-up on July 22 at No. 7.
“We’re really looking to build a brand, like what we did with Ample Hills, that connects people to the American past in search of the great American hamburger,” Smith said.
