Dining
400°
2102 Clarksville Highway, 244-4467
Late on a sultry Saturday night, at a bungalow on Sweetbriar Avenue, an event of harmonic culinary convergence took place that went completely unnoticed by nearly all of Nashville. Weeks later, it is still being talked about by the 100 or so folks who participated in Camp Nashville—two days of total immersion in local cooking and dining traditions presented by the Southern Foodways Alliance, a member-supported organization that believes the key to happy, healthy, harmonious Southern living can be found in the region’s native cuisine.
The fortunate few tasted plum paletas, Yazoo beer, Jack Daniel’s whiskey and E.W. Mayo’s fried peach pies; Jim ’n Nick’s grilled habañero-sausage-pimento-cheese stack; catfish BLT’s from former Capitol Grille chef Sean Brock; tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes at the third annual East Nashville Tomato Art Festival; and roast beef, white beans, mac and cheese, cornbread and banana pudding from Arnold’s. But it was the Grande Finale that warmed hearts—and tested iron stomachs—when three competitors put aside their tongs for a joint spread of Nashville’s unique edible calling card: hot chicken.
Photo: ericengland.net
Present were Prince’s Hot Chicken, the most tenured and recognized; Bolton’s Hot Chicken, whose roots go back a full generation; and the baby, 400°, which jumped into the fryer in February and is already making a name for itself. Silver chafing dishes held deep-russet breast and leg quarters—medium and hot—with cooling graciously provided by a buttermilk bar and homemade ice-cream sandwiches from Martha Stamps. Mary Beth Lasseter, the SFA associate director who coordinated the whole shebang, called Camp Nashville one of the organization’s most successful events ever, from the “inviting and gracious” locals to the “amazing” food. But she singled out the hot chicken as making “a huge impression on people who had never been to Nashville.”
Given hot chicken’s reputation as an internal cleansing agent—discussed in detail by Prince’s André Jeffries in an oral history available on the SFA website at
southernfoodways.com—that impression was probably lasting. But whatever the consequences—watering eyes, scorched tongue, sweat-soaked foreheads and seared esophagus among them—hot-chicken aficionados swear they are worth it.
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The past couple years have sadly seen three purveyors of the incendiary treat—Mr. Boo’s, Dixie’s and Lorrie Morgan’s hotchicken.com—fizzle out, leaving just Prince’s and Bolton’s to fan the traditional flames; Wilma Kaye’s Country Kitchen offers its own Louisiana interpretation. Each presents compelling reasons to make the trip to Dickerson Road, Gallatin Road and Stewarts Ferry Pike, respectively, for a fix of the addictively fiery fowl. The opening of 400° in February adds Clarksville Highway to the hot-chicken circuit.
The place may be brand new, but owner Aqui Simpson is a hot-chicken vet. The Nashville native and Tennessee State University grad says she loves it so much, she was at Prince’s nearly every day until a cousin started her cooking it. “He used to pay me to come make hot chicken for him,” Simpson says, “and that’s how I developed my recipe.” But it was her impending wedding that inspired her to expand her customer base.
“I’ve always wanted to have my own business, but it’s a big step,” Simpson says. “I’m getting married the end of September and my fiancé and I want to have children pretty quick, so I figured that if I didn’t do it now, I never would.”
Life coaches might be aghast at Simpson’s near-simultaneous leaps of faith, but so far the chicken’s working some powerful mojo. Not even clouds of billowing smoke from a small kitchen mishap could drive away three carloads of customers cooling their heels in the parking lot one steamy night. They peeked inside to check on their chicken, turning their gaze to a small-screen TV where the Broncos were smoking the Titans worse than anything on the stove. One woman leaned over and asked if this was my first visit. I replied that it was, but that I’d patronized Prince’s for years. She confessed, “Well, I like Prince’s too, but I think Aqui’s is better. There’s something about her recipe.”
Not that anyone aside from Aqui will ever know what it is, as her formula for hot chicken remains as top secret as her peers’. Like theirs, it does engage varying amounts of cayenne and paprika, depending on the level of heat requested. She offers 0° for regular fried chicken; 100° for mild; 200° for medium; 400° for hot. Leg or breast quarters are delivered typical hot-chicken style—toothpicked atop two pieces of white bread and topped with dill pickle chips. Daily sides are crinkle-cut fries (which get a dusting of paprika and a whisper of cayenne), baked beans (so sweet they nearly qualify as candy), cole slaw and potato salad. (If her mother pulls a shift in the kitchen, expect to find mac and cheese and possibly another side or two as well.)
Simpson’s chicken is similar to Prince’s in flavor, though the crust is a little thicker. The chief difference is that Aqui’s is deep-fried, not skillet-fried: the bird definitely leaves less of an oil slick on the bread, which is likely due to more efficient draining in the fry basket than skillet-frying allows. The 200° version is feisty, with an elevated level of heat that leaves no doubt you’re eating classic hot chicken; the 400° was surprisingly manageable, offering a real kick on the tongue but without the lingering, impossible-to-dissipate burn that the hottest versions sometimes deliver. Still, unless living on the edge is your style, the 200° has a better, more enjoyable flavor.
Jumbo-sized bone-in pork chops—the one we sampled was at least an inch thick and completely covered the bread beneath it—also serve as a fine instrument for the 400° treatment, an item unique to this store. Fat wings are four to an order and pack a bunch of punch. Simpson says customers have been requesting chicken tenders, but the compact kitchen limits the size of the menu for now.
Though there are two tables inside, most of the business is takeout. Calling ahead is encouraged, as everything is cooked fresh to order.
If the addition of 400° and the strong showing at Camp Nashville proves anything, it’s that hot chicken is becoming Nashville’s most notable contribution to Southern culinary culture. In that spirit, one can only hope that Mayor Bill Purcell, the city’s most vocal and high-profile fan of the fearsome fowl, will not leave office without getting birds of a feather to flock together for the first Nashville Hot Chicken Festival. One day, perhaps, we will trace a lasting legacy back to the night when 100 people saw Prince’s, Bolton’s and 400° standing breast to breast, thigh to thigh and leg to leg—one nation, indivisible, with Wet-Naps and burning lips for all.
400° is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and noon to 9 p.m. Saturday.