A NEW jerk chicken restaurant has opened in Bournemouth town centre – and they’re giving away free wings.

Natty’s Jerk has opened up at Tonic Social at the Hilton, and the restaurant is giving away 2,000 chicken wings to locals.

The ‘Free Little Birds’ giveaway will see wings given out at the restaurant from 1pm on Saturday, February 17.

Founder of Natty’s, Natty Crutchfield, said giving away the wings was his way of showing gratitude to the community after it was nominated for Restaurant of the Year with Uber Eats by its customers.

After finishing second for two years running, Natty decided he wanted to thank customers in Portsmouth.

“People show us gratitude. How can I do something I know that people enjoy and show gratitude back and give to a community,” he said.

“We're in hard times, if you like it or not. Even people that are doing well are saying that they're in hard times, right? So, let's put a smile on people's faces that walk by.

“They walk by and they look and go, I would probably love to go in there but I'm never going to get to taste it, or not at the moment. So how can we do it?”

Natty planned to give away 1,000 wings, but after a ‘mistake in calculation’, he ended up giving away 4,500 wings across four days.

Afterwards, Natty said giving away wings ‘should be our thing’.

“We call it ‘Free Little Birds’ as in free, F-R-E-E, as in the Bob Marley song, everything ties in really well,” he said.

“It's the ‘Free Little Bird’ giveaway. And it's a kind of, hi, Bournemouth, we're here, please come and see us and thank you for having us.”

Natty stressed that there are no catches or obligation for those collecting the wings to buy anything.

“It's literally you just turn up, you walk up, you take them,” he said.

“You can sit in if you want and buy more. Buy a drink, if you want to, a little rum punch.

“But how we did it, we literally just went in Portsmouth, and I expect it to be the same, you walk in, you grab a bag, you can hopefully go down to the beach, go up into the city centre, sit there and eat it, take them home.

“You don’t ever have to even come back if you don't want to. There is no catch to it.”

The giveaway will be at Natty’s Jerk at Tonic Social in Exeter Road from 1pm on Saturday, February 17.