New chicken shop Pollito Loco takeaway opens its doors in Fratton

Pollito Loco has recently opened up in Rodney Road, Fratton and owner Gemma Hammond is eager to hit the ground running by making her business a successful community based street food takeaway.

The 46-year-old has been a chef since she was 15 years old and began in a gastro pub in Surrey where she ‘cut her teeth’ on the industry and fell in love with hospitality.

She has had an array of jobs within the industry including working as a teacher at Havant and South Downs College where she would assess youngsters taking the qualifications, as well as jetting off to Spain to work in a detox hotel as a chef.

The chef established her own catering company and found that she was being stretched thin by having to go to her various warehouses to pick up her produce.

It was her time in Spain that she began sowing the seeds for her newest business venture, which was sparked when she was trying to learn Spanish and stumbled across a television programme about a chicken diner.

She said: ‘I think it is really important to forge relationships in the community and with people establishing connections in the industry.

‘I first moved to Spain and I went to work in a detox hotel and when I was learning to speak Spanish I had to watch television because it was the only way. There was programme about a diner that served chicken wings and they would just cook them and throw them into a basket but they are messy and dirty to eat and you can’t just walk with one, so I thought what can we do to make them easier to eat and less messy, so I stripped them down to make a chicken popper.’

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From that point, the idea evolved and Gemma began devising a menu full of flavours from across the globe in order to appeal to Portsmouth’s multicultural society.

She has a range of delicacies on her menu, ranging from burgers to soup to chicken empanadas, all with a variety of spices and herbs.

She said: ‘Chicken is far healthier, there is fewer religious barriers to eating chicken and it is more popular and attractive.

‘We want to keep the business up and running, and we are going to create a Crowdfunder to be able to get a food van, it is something I have wanted to do so we can take it to festivals.’

Inside the venue are tributes to world-famous artists that Gemma has fed on tour over the years – including Iron Maiden, Faithless and Jools Holland.

Gemma has converted an office space into her new site, and she has had to input electricity, water and has pumped thousands of pounds into making it what she envisioned.

Pollito Loco means ‘crazy little chicken’ and Gemma has said that she is working towards making her business a truly sustainable and zero waste one.

She added: ‘I am really really excited about this.

‘We are just hoping to get a bit of momentum so we can get going and make connections.

‘It is something I have always done and I just love it.’