Security guards at Magic City’s front entrance manage two responsibilities: First, checking IDs and collecting cover charges for those who come to enjoy the adult entertainment at one of the most famous strip clubs in the South, renowned for its entertainers and keeping the pulse of Atlanta’s music scene.
A close second is regulating the people picking up to-go orders of wings, catfish nuggets, and fried okra from Magic City Kitchen, located inside the club.
“People come here just for the food,” says Erica M., who cooks, runs logistics, and manages operations for Magic City Kitchen, widely lauded for producing some of Atlanta’s best wings. The Food Section is granting her anonymity because she wants to maintain privacy at work.
“We have two parking spaces up front reserved for the actual kitchen,” she continues. “That’s how much volume we have.”
That says a lot in a city that takes wings as seriously as Atlanta. Georgia is known as one of the top states for chicken wing consumption, with the locally-eminent lemon pepper flavor leading the way. The city’s love for “lemon pepper wet” was chronicled in an early episode of FX’s show Atlanta, when two of the show’s main characters ogle over the perfectly-prepared order.
Magic City’s most popular wing sauce flavor is LouWill, named after the former NBA player who broke the NBA’s quarantine bubble in 2020 to get an order of the tangy BBQ wings with tart lemon pepper sprinkles. Their other signature flavors include jerk seasoning, and a unique mustard-based flavor called Justice Magic that is pungent, earthy, and finishes sweet.
Still, all of them were off-limits to drums and flats fans who didn’t want to patronize the club until 2022, when Magic City Kitchen joined delivery apps Doordash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Erica estimates half of the restaurant’s food business now comes from customers who eat off site, whether they intend to avoid the cover charge, or are prudish about strip clubs.
When arriving to pick up an order from Magic City Kitchen, you have to show a text message confirming the order is ready before security will admit you. That’s to keep delivery drivers and customers from checking out the venue while they wait.
“I took it as if I just walked into a Chili’s, or something like that, and there just so happened to be beautiful women walking around,” said Tim Alvarez, a videographer and editor who lives an hour north in Alpharetta, Georgia. He came to Atlanta for a car show and used it as an opportunity to try the famed LouWill wings since he wasn’t with his kids; customers and delivery drivers must be at least 21 to pick up an order.
“The wings were super flavorful,” he said. “I really did enjoy it. It was an experience, getting wings at one of the most famous strip clubs in the whole entire world. The fact that they were good, I will definitely go back,” he said.
Magic City Kitchen’s cooking space is no bigger than a ship’s galley, with most of the walls covered in shelves to hold seasonings. Six stove tops and two fryers sit behind the sliding window near the cash register. Erica calls it their small but mighty kitchen.
How mighty? Erica also uses the kitchen to fulfill long-distance orders placed via Goldbelly, a website which ships food from partner restaurants across the U.S. She’s prepared and shipped as many as 10,000 wings for the Super Bowl, a record for the small kitchen.
For Erica, it all adds up to Magic City Kitchen’s reputation rivaling that of the club.
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