Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Travel Advisory Brooklyn's Version of Nashville-Style Hot Chicken — A Knowledgeable Nashvillian Checks It Out
Posted by Dana Kopp Franklin on Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 11:04 AM
- Photo by Evan Sung via
- Hot chicken from Peaches HotHouse in Brooklyn
Well, now Jennifer Justus, food writer at the Tennessean, has posted on her personal blog an account of her visit to said restaurant, Peaches HotHouse.
Unfailingly polite, Justus nonetheless reports such heresies as the "Nashville-style hot chicken" is not cooked in a skillet (ancient and spice-encrusted or otherwise) but is fried in a fryer.
Also noted in Justus' colorful prose: "At Peaches HotHouse the chicken is pleasantly orange. Like a sunset. At Prince’s it’s rusty-brown like a paint chip from the walls of hell.
"At Peaches HotHouse the chicken rests on a sturdy mattress of egg bread," she continues. "At Prince’s it sits on a standard-issue slice of white bread so thick with grease you could wring it out."
Justus speaks to one of Peaches' owners, Ben Grossman, who says, “The chicken that we serve up here is probably more like a medium down in Nashville. But we do offer two more varieties of hot, hot chicken which you need to ask for." He adds, "I remember when I was eating down at Prince’s I could only take a few bites.”
It takes a real man to admit that.
Justus gives Grossman and his partner Craig Samuel (both Brooklynites and classically trained chefs) major credit for actually taking the time to learn about hot chicken after being impressed by a Southern Foodways Alliance documentary on the subject. Grossman went on a pilgrimage to Nashville, where he visited Prince’s, Bolton’s and 400 Degrees.
"All things considered, I love what the guys in New York are doing," Justus says, calling Peaches' hot chicken "an homage," not a rip-off.
Comments (12)
Showing 1-12 of 12
I recently took a visiting Brooklyn friend (who has eaten hot chicken at Peaches) for his first Prince's experience. He ordered medium. Reaction: "Yeah, this is hot. Much hotter." Success! :)
P.S. The potato salad at Prince's is outstanding. Got it for the first time and I'm never ordering any other side again.
like
dislike
Carrie - I am with you on the potato salad at Prince's. Perfect compliment to a hot leg quarter. As for the Brooklynites, good on em, I suppose, but I can't fathom hot chicken on anything other than the grease-soaked white bread.
My boss from Birmingham is coming up next month and wants me to set up lunch for him to take the whole office to. Think I should spring Prince's on him?
As far as the potato salad, I had it last time I was there and thought it was classic Robert Orr/Sisco. Was I wrong?
Maybe it is, BW. In that case, kudos to the Sysco folks. It's not the "best" potato salad by any stretch of the imagination, but it works perfectly with hot chicken.
And, yes, all out-of-towners should be taken to Prince's.
55 South is serving something labeled on the menu as "Nashville Hot Chicken" and it's pretty bad. It would definitely give those that don't know any better the wrong impression of hot chicken. I'm going to have to try 400 Degrees. I've heard pretty good things about them.
I don't think Prince's is a good place to take "the whole office to" unless it's a small office. Isn't Prince's primarily take away?
My friend Jen did a Prince's-Peaches comparison for Travel and Leisure's site recently:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/blogs/carr…
My friend Jen recently did a Prince's-Peaches comparison for Travel and Leisure's site:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/blogs/carr…
@Merritt, thanks for sharing that link. An informative, well-written take on the subject.
MCF - I was skeptical of 400 Degrees for reasons I can't articulate. But, I had a couple of plates at the Hot Chicken Festival (especially because Prince's disappointed there by going only with tenders which fell far short of what you get in-store) and I must say 400 Degrees impressed me. It's a good alternative for those of us on the west side that don't necessarily want to drive up to Dickerson Road. I prefer Prince's still, but I am no longer a Prince's-only guy.
The reason all the Hot Chicken vendors at the HCF except Chicken Shack (which went with wings) went with tenders is because breasts--which are Prince's usual product--take forever to cook and people would have been in line for hours more than they were. Anyone who goes to Prince's knows each breast order takes nearly 30 minutes. Can you imagine that for 500 people in line? If you want the breast you'll have to go to the store.
