Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Restaurants Finger likkin' hot motherflippin' chicken
Posted by Brad Kaplan on Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 10:54 AM
Well, Atlanta is now getting a very small taste of Nashville hot chicken. This taste comes courtesy of Holeman & Finch Public House, and is only available on Monday nights. Six dollars gets you one plate of homage to Nashville hot chicken. A single chicken thigh fried to a crisp and packin' heat, served atop a slice of house-baked white bread with some bright green pickles perched on top of it all.
Holeman & Finch's dalliance with hot chicken is only a few weeks old, but I won't mind if it turns into a longstanding love affair. And I won't mind if there is some counseling involved to make sure the love is strong. You see, Holeman & Finch and hot chicken are still in the awkward dating phase. The bread and pickles certainly give the chicken the Nashville look, but something is a bit lost in translation. Soft, cushiony Wonder bread does make a perfect platform for a hot mess of a piece of bird, but a house-baked loaf, while noble, can never capture Wonder's industrial lightness and magic. And Holeman & Finch's chicken? She's fiery, for sure, enough to leave a few tears running down your cheek and an excited tingle in your mouth. She's crunchy, to the max, enough to turn off those that don't dig the crunchy type. And, there's no other way to say this - she's pasty. Gritty? Maybe. Smooth? Definitely not. There's just a bit of something that coats your tongue that leaves you pondering her faults rather than her assets. Not enough to make you turn away, but enough to keep you thinking about what could be.
Like I said, I see a bright future for these two. If this chicken can go from pasty to pleasant while still maintaining her fiery demeanor, she may even steal away Holeman & Finch's affections for the 10pm burger. But hopefully they can all live together in juicy, steamy love.
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
The crust made me think of a meringue (like a Pavlova) or the crust of a Creme Brulee. No me gusta.
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Funny enough, someone at our table last night at H&F said that exact same thing (the creme brûlée reference that is, I don't think the words Pavlova or meringue entered the conversation).
$6 for one chicken thigh? Really? Can't throw a leg on there too? Man, and I thought Leroys was expensive.
$6 ain't cheap, but it is line with the rest of the H&F menu.
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