Milwaukee’s Most Beloved Fried Chicken Spot

Fried chicken, urban farming, and one of Milwaukee’s most meaningful food projects. Step inside Kinship and see how great cooking, community, and dignity come together on MLK Drive. This episode of Wisconsin Foodie heads to Milwaukee’s Martin Luther King Drive to explore Kinship Café, a three-part powerhouse made up of a café, an urban farm, and a community-driven food center. Luke reunites with chef and advocate Caitlin Cullen to see how Kinship blends scratch cooking, workforce development, and dignity-centered food access, from their cult-favorite fried chicken sandwiches to thousands of meals prepared for neighbors each week. In the kitchen, Jen shares how Kinship helped transform her life while teaching Luke how to make the fiery “Angry Buff” sandwich. Out on the farm, manager Cole Compton shows how an unexpected three-acre urban plot produces more than 20,000 pounds of fresh food annually with help from volunteers across the city. The journey culminates at the Kinship Food Center, where produce moves from hoop house to community table in hours, and where shared meals, storytelling, and radical hospitality reveal how food can restore dignity, build opportunity, and strengthen Milwaukee communities. If you care about local food, urban farming, social impact, and the power of cooking to change lives, this is a story you don’t want to miss. Featuring Kinship Café, Kinship Farm, and the Kinship Community Food Center https://kinshipmke.org/cafe Thanks to Caitlin Cullen , Shania Hutchins , Cole Compton , Mattie Allen, Vincent Noth , Amanda Fahrendorf, Jennifer S. Mehr and the Kinship team 00:00 Welcome to Kinship on Milwaukee’s MLK Drive 00:32 Meeting Caitlin Cullen and the Kinship mission 01:54 Inside Kinship Café and the fried chicken draw 02:36 Workforce development and the Kinship Food Center 03:40 How Kinship began as neighbors feeding neighbors 04:01 Cooking with Jen at Kinship Café 04:30 Breaking down the Angry Buff chicken sandwich 06:14 Frying the Angry Buff and building the sandwich 07:59 Tasting the Angry Buff sandwich 09:07 Jen’s story and what Kinship changed for her 09:47 Heading to the Kinship Urban Farm 10:37 Touring the three-acre urban farm with Cole Compton 11:47 Growing 20,000 pounds of food in the city 13:29 Preparing for year-round growing in hoop houses 14:20 From harvest to table in under 8 minutes 14:52 Arriving at the Kinship Food Center 15:21 Cooking chili with farm-fresh ingredients 16:35 Finding purpose through Kinship’s workforce program 17:12 Community gathering and shared meal 18:17 Radical hospitality and dignity-centered food access 19:29 Food, connection, and building resilience together #WisconsinFoodie #MilwaukeeFood #UrbanFarming #FoodJustice #MidwestFood