YouTubers the Sidemen plan to open 10 chicken restaurants this year

YouTubers the Sidemen have launched a fourth standalone restaurant in the UK as part of plans to open 10 sites under their Sides fried chicken brand this year.

The group consists of Olajide ‘JJ’ Olatunji (KSI), Harry Lewis (Wroetoshaw), Simon Minter (Miniminter), Vik Barn (Vikkstar123), Josh Bradley (Zerkaa), Ethan Payne (Behzinga) and Tobi Brown (TBJZL), and has 18.8m subscribers.

The new location at BoxPark Croydon is the Sides' second opening of 2023 and follows the launch of other bricks-and-mortar restaurants at BoxPark Wembley, Gravity Wandsworth and Market Place Harrow.

Sides launched in 2021 as part of Virtual Hero Group, a subsidiary of Hero Brands, the company behind the Island Poke and German Doner Kebab restaurant chains. It runs virtual delivery kitchens across the UK and there are plans to open around 200 global locations over the next ten years.

Menu items include hot Nashville-style chicken dipped in a paprika-spiced oil; crispy corn ribs; waffle fries; and mac and cheese bites.

Robin Mehta, chief executive of Sides, said: “Sides is always growing and we have some exciting developments coming up in 2023 as we look to ramp up and develop our restaurant portfolio to 200 locations over the next decade and expand our reach in the UK.”

Partnerships between food brands and YouTubers are becoming more common as investors look to capitalise off their huge online following.

Sidemen member KSI teamed up with fellow YouTuber Logan Paul to launch the Prime energy drink last year, which quickly became an online sensation with videos showing supermarkets being swarmed by crowds emptying their shelves.

Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who is the biggest YouTuber in the world with 172m subscribers, opened the MrBeast Burger restaurant chain with Virtual Dining Concepts in 2020 but is now suing the company. He has asked a judged to let him terminate the agreement with Virtual Dining Concepts over claims fans found the food “revolting”.