SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - When it comes to fresh, flavorful food, Flor Franco not only cooks with a flair, she cooks with a conscience.
"Our community really needs healthy food, healthy choices for moms that work and people that don't have time to cook and make it affordable," Flor said.
So nine months ago, Flor opened her Urban Chicken right on the corner of 25th and Market.
"I purposely went around trying to find exactly a spot like this," she said.
Her fast food alternative fare features free-range chickens.
"All our chickens are gluten-free. They have vegetarian diets, no antibiotics. They are just great birds that we cook.
"We marinate our chicken 24 hours. We season and grill our chicken. It's a lot of work. This really goes back to simple food, which means a lot of work," Flor said.
Pollo isn't the only healthy choice on the Urban Chicken menu.
"We're making our own dressing every day from scratch, where all the salads that you're taking are coming from Suzy's Farm, for example, and they're all organic," Flor said.
Fresh veggies are grilled and sides are homemade.
"We have a chipotle sauce with tequila sauce and we have a cilantro, more like Peruvian-style," Flor said.
Urban Chicken also offers a milder tomato-cinnamon sauce that keeps them coming back.
"I just love this place. I'll drive from PB just to get the chicken here," a customer said.
"I work at a local charter school and we love to support a restaurant like this that has organic food and sells it in the community," another customer said.
In the heart of the city, Urban Chicken seeks to convert a fast food nation, one fresh-grilled fowl at a time.
Urban Chicken
549 25th Street
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 756-6911
