Modesto fried chicken pop-up becomes restaurant. Menu offers 15 house-made sauces
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Saucin’ It Up opens a fried chicken spot in Modesto with 15 house-made sauces.
- Fried chicken and other fried items are gluten free.
- The grand opening will be Saturday, July 5.
What’s arguably as important as the flavor profile and crunch of fried chicken? The sauce you dip it in.
Saucin’ It Up Fried Chicken gets that. It’s why the eatery has more house-made sauce options than it has menu items — a total of 15.
Owners Brittnie and Damian Ramsey opened Saucin’ It Up Fried Chicken as a pop-up in Los Angeles in 2019. They moved to Modesto in 2021 and continued the business.
When they started, The Ramseys made five dipping sauces. But they knew they would add more and decided to name their business to reflect their two main focuses.
“We knew that we wanted it to revolve around the sauce,” Brittnie Ramsey said. “We know people love sauce.”
After nearly six years of doing pop-up events and farmers markets, the Ramseys took over the lease of Conchitas at 4459 Spyres Way, Suite C, in Modesto near Bangs Avenue. The soft opening was Friday, June 20.
Being a small space with no seating or public bathrooms, Saucin’ It Up is a takeout-only restaurant.
“We highly encourage tailgating while you wait or after you grab your food,” the Saucin’ It Up Instagram says.
Saucin’ It Up Fried Chicken serves, well, fried chicken and sauce
Brittnie Ramsey’s career experience has been in pastry departments in the restaurant industry.
She and Damian began discussing the idea of opening a business in 2018, and it took them around a year to figure out what that business would be.
“We were at a time in our life where we were not loving our jobs,” Brittnie Ramsey said. “So we’re like, ‘All right, well, let’s sell food. And then with the food, I could do desserts or I could bake somehow.’”
She bakes cookies and biscuits for the restaurant.
The menu at Saucin’ It Up is fairly simple. The real decision-making occurs when trying to choose from among all 15 sauces.
There are three categories on the menu: chicken, loaded items and sides.
Under the chicken category is chicken n’ biscuit with choice of a buttermilk or blueberry biscuit and honey or hot honey for $12. Bone-in wings come in six or 12 pieces, for $12 and $20, respectively. Tenders come in two, four or eight pieces, for $8, $14 and $24.
Loaded items are topped with cheese, bacon and green onions. Options are tenders ($15 for a small, $25 for a large), potato wedges for $12 or half tenders, half wedges for $15.
Sides are potato wedges ($7), fried pickle spears ($6), honey mustard macaroni salad ($6) and a biscuit with butter ($4).
Sauce options are:
No spice
- Black cherry barbecue
- Honey brown sugar barbecue
- Rodeo
- Buttermilk
- Lemon pepper
- Honey mustard
Spicy:
- Getbaq
- Cajun buttermilk
- Strawberry sweet heat
- Smoke out
- Hot honey blueberry barbecue
- Pina pepper hot sauce
- Fuego
- Kickn’ house
- XXX
“The only different thing is — it kind of throws some people off — we don’t toss anything in the sauce,” Ramsey said. “That’s just because we have so many options. People may not know what (the sauce) is, so I would hate for them to get their stuff tossed and they don’t love that sauce.”
A customer at the soft opening told Modesto Bee reporters about his custom sauce blend, which he dubbed “S.O.B.” He orders the smoke out sauce and the buttermilk sauce and mixes them.
While the kickn’ house sauce on the menu is also the smoke out sauce and the buttermilk sauces combined, it also has added spice — making it too hot to handle for some.
“We encourage people to mix sauces,” Ramsey said.
Fried chicken is accidentally gluten free
While he doesn’t have a professional culinary background, Damian Ramsey grew up learning how to cook from his mother, who’s from the South. Cooking “comes natural with him,” Brittnie Ramsey said.
Everything at Saucin’ It Up is house made, down to the seasonings and dry mixes.
Damian Ramsey hasn’t stopped working on perfecting his recipes since the business opened in 2019, his wife said. He achieved his goal in late 2024.
“We are now gluten free, which we stumbled upon that just because he was trying to get crispy chicken, and he realized crispier is without flour,” Brittnie Ramsey said. “It’s starches, rice flour and other alternatives.”
While everything that goes in the fryer, including the chicken, potatoes wedges and fried pickles, is gluten free, Saucin’ It Up is not a gluten-free facility. Items including the macaroni salad and biscuits have gluten.
Gluten-free fried food is a pleasant surprise for those who avoid gluten, and just a good recipe, in the opinion of others.
“People just say it’s crispy and delicious,” Brittnie Ramsey said. “People are saying it’s better than ever.”
Modesto Bee reporter Maria Figueroa attended Saucin’ It Up’s soft opening. Figueroa has been gluten free for nearly five years due to celiac disease. Here’s what she had to say about her experience:
“Watching all these white boxes come out from the back, I eagerly awaited my turn to receive this gift of chicken. When our number was called, I returned to the car and lifted the lid to be greeted by an aesthetic presentation of chicken, biscuits, potato wedges and sides all sitting in individual trays lined with checkered red and white paper surrounded by lidded cups of house-made sauces.
“One bite later and I was transported to the days when I could eat fried chicken freely without the threat of gluten making me react. It was juicy, crunchy, substantial and, most importantly, perfectly seasoned. I lined up the sauces to try each one, all of them were so savory and unique, the Rodeo being my favorite; similar to a BBQ ranch with a little extra tang.
“I moved on to the loaded potato wedges, which were perfectly cooked and topped with cheese, bacon and green onions. I was in chicken-strip heaven. It may seem trivial to be this excited about chicken strips, but it is my favorite food and I used to drive hours out of the city to try gluten-free options in the Bay Area. Having this option here is so incredible and I will be going back regularly.”
Saucin’ It Up to celebrate grand opening
After two soft-opening weekends, Saucin’ It Up will celebrate its grand opening Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. or until sold out.
Regular hours will be Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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