Hot Chicken

What do you do when you can't find a decent piece of hot chicken in da ATL? You get your muffin top in the car and head up to the place where it all started... A little place called Nashville. Yeah, it may be a little extreme and almost borderline certifiable to drive hours for a piece of chicken but sometimes it's absolutely necessary when the craving hits. You will drive passed a lot of trees and rednecks in wife beaters driving a beater but it's worth it in the end.

Let's get this party started... Time to rock out with your hot cock out.

First digs, Hattie B's near Vanderbilt... It's kinda like a college hipster hangout. Those trust fund pussies can't take the heat but they do like the banana in the tail pipe pudding though.

Dare to compare... Southern style vs. Nashville hot chicken style. Look at that spread, it's a shitload of grub for one sitting. I took no prisoners. The sides were all pretty simple but tasty. The redskin tater salad and beans were stand outs. I don't eat much desserts or sweets but the banana pudding was da bomb, creamy sweet and nice chunks of ripen bananas filled it out, the vanilla wafers were not stale like most other places.

Glamour shot of the "Get the Cluck Outta Here" hot... This was their hottest hottest hot chicken available up in this piece. The guy was like, you sure about this? I was like, dude, stop it and mind your own biznaz. It looked terrifying at first glance but I just dove right in and inhale that beast (leg-thigh combo, always, if you get white meat for hot chicken you're an ass clown) in like 2 minzies. I would say it's mild to medium hot, no where near the high end mark of hot. It was a crispy, juicy and mildly spiced chicken that delivers what most people would expect. I can only wonder how weak the medium or hot levels are. The southern style was a very nice plain fried chicken... Just bring your own hot sauce.

112 19th Ave S
Nashville, TN 37203
615-678-4794
http://www.hattieb.com/ 


Next up... Pepperfire Chicken. Based on a recommendation from a friend who lives in N'ville, I was told this was da bomb, better than Prince's. I had to see what the fuss was about with smack talk like that. It's a shack with some picnic tables inside a covered area. You order from a tiny window, similar to a walk up liquor store bullet proof window in the ghetto, and they text you when your order is ready... Because it's so difficult to call out your name. They just want you to like them on Facebook. Seems like they get a lot of call ahead orders which could be why they text you, it is 2013, y'all.

XX-Hot. The hottest they got. I told them to make it XXXX-Hot. They said they can only do so much, we're not miracle workers here, we just make hot chicken. I just triple dog dared them and they bent over and took it like a little bitch. This hot cheekan looks deadly with the glossy dark shellac of hotness. Not as battered at most other places but definitely deeper in color and less wet. Great tasting chicken, juicy and semi crispy but sadly it had zero heat. I kept eating and eating hoping the heat and spices will develop via some chemical reaction with saliva or bad breath but all I got was nada. This was like a nice backyard BBQ chicken with a decent coating of dry rub. The fries and okra were from a brown bag... But it was seasoned well, so it's got that going for it.

2821 Gallatin Pike
Nashville, TN 37216
(615) 582-4824
http://www.pepperfirechicken.com/


Meanwhile, in the hipsterville part of Nashville... Holland House Bar & Refuge has an amazing atmosphere but their Happy Hour menu (both food and cocktails) is even more amazing. They have the standard happy hour from 5-6PM but they also come back after 10PM. FUCK YEAH, brah. All the classic cocktails are $5... Are you fucking kidding me? Five friggin bucks?! Don't even hand me the menu, just yes, please. Then I glanced at the happy hour menu and everything on there is also $5. Why is this not in Atlanta... WTF, yo?! I really wanted their Korean Fried Chicken but they replaced it with a Hot Chicken, instead. Even better, bro. But for $5, what will I really get... The bartender did say it was a drier style hot chicken. I was so happy with the cocktails that the hot chicken was just a consolation prize, even if it sucked dick, I was totally jazzed about this joint.

First off, why is it in nugget form? Oh, I get it, it's fancy hipster gastropub style served on top of a baguette instead of white bread, a few slices of gourmet bread & butter pickles and a little tater salad. It may be called hot chicken, but this was not hot chicken, Atlanta has better hot chicken than this and that's really pushing it. These were spiced nuggets made from white meat. While they were quite tasty, they really shouldn't call this hot chicken... It's like saying  General Tso's chicken is spicy and real Chinese food. You can fool the retards but the people who seek the real stuff will be sorely disappointed. But to give them credit, they did say this was not real hot chicken but I was so excited about the cocktails that I didn't even care. I bamboozled myself. Bartender, another $5 Manhattan, pweez. Still a great place.

935 W Eastland Ave
Nashville, TN 37206
(615) 262-4190
http://www.hollandhousebarandrefuge.com/


Ok, this is not hot chicken but when I see fried chicken in a shack in the ghetto, I'm like a fly to a flypaper. That shit just pulls me in and never lets go. It's ok though, I'll be in chicken heaven. This small Alabama chain have one outpost in Chattanooga. It's kinda in a seedy area (I saw cops taking pictures of gang graffiti on the building walls next door, how fun!) but that's usually where you will find the best fried chicken, 40's of beer and hot white college girls working here. Naturally.

I got some fried chicken and fried livers. The livers were pretty awesome... large livers, medium batter and super crispy. Douse it with hot sauce and heaven will open it's doors. The fried chicken, made to order, was super crunchy and juicy. It's just a great piece of fried chicken. Don't you dare get white meat here... Unless it's one of the servers. Is it better than Popeyes? Close but Pops is still King. You know how hard it was for me to not go into a Popeyes on this road trip... Had to close my eyes and think about KFC every time I saw a Pops. That's discipline.

526 E Ml King Blvd
Chattanooga, TN 37402
(423) 752-9198
http://champyschicken.com/


I did not have the chance to see how Prince's Hot Chicken was these days because it was closed when I went by. They have the worst business plan, they open and close whenever it suits them, never keeps to their schedule. But as I remembered it last, their chicken was pretty damn good and spicy. On this trip, Hattie B's came out on top.