Fried Chicken: the thread

[Sneakeater]

(They DO give you unlimited free water.)

[joethefoodie]

See, once you break it out like that, are the prices really that outrageous?

I'm guessing more like $25 for a good chicken sandwich and hopefully good fries. Using ketchup or mustard (which I'm assuming they have and is "free").

[Seth Gordon]

2 hours ago, joethefoodie said:

It's funny but I was going to (should have) asked @Sneakeater for the breakdown. 

$13 beer

$10 fries

$16 sandwich???

That’s about the going rate (maybe even a little low) for Trendy Gen-Y Chef Asian Chicken Sandwiches. That’s the same price at Double Chicken Please, while it’s $19 at Nowon, although the latter is notably larger  

The chicken sandwich at Saigon Social (RIP) eventually hit $22 - though that included tater tots or (dreadfully inferior) shoestring fries. But I’d happily pay $16 or more for the sandwich alone if she would put it back on the menu. (I actually don’t think I’ve been back since she dropped it, which might be me holding an unconscious grudge.)

Comparative deal: bun aside (the pao roll wasn’t working for me) the small Rowdy Rooster for $9 (or go large for $12) plus a $4 potato pakora side and an icy Modelo from a nearby bodega was a perfectly satisfying under-$20 lunch.

[Sneakeater]

39 minutes ago, joethefoodie said:

Using ketchup or mustard (which I'm assuming they have and is "free").

I don't think they do, actually.

Would clash with the concept.

[Wilfrid]

Fuku is about the same I think but fries included. I am more worried about $10 fries than the sandwich. Is that right?

(Okay, website says $7.)

[joethefoodie]

23 minutes ago, Wilfrid said:

Fuku is about the same I think but fries included. I am more worried about $10 fries than the sandwich. Is that right?

(Okay, website says $7.)

Yeah - how about $14 for the fries at Corner Bar?

[splinky]

13 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I'm glad @Wilfrid resuscitated this thread.  Cuz yesterday evening, as I was running errands up and down Flatbush Avenue, I passed by the new permanent Pecking House -- and there was no line.

Pecking House started as a pop-up inside the chef's parents' restaurant in Fresh Meadows.  The chef came out of EMP.  EMP chefs going solo to make cheffed-up versions of their own ethnic cuisines has almost passed from a trend to a cliche.  But the Pecking House pop-up had a waiting list in the thousands.

Now they've opened a permanent location on the corner of Flatbush and St. Marks (right across the street from the former location of Mayor Adams's friends' last restaurant.)

So Pecking House serves cheffed-up Taiwanese fried chicken.

I had a sandwich, fries (with green garlic ranch for dipping), and -- I'm happy to say -- a can of Schilling Pilsner.

For fast casual, this was all extraordinary.  The chicken was moist, perfectly fried, the crust subtly but forthrightly (and distinctively) seasoned.  The sandwich is dressed with a sweet-and-salty pineapple preserve:  delicious.  The fries are seasoned with "roast chicken salt":  dehydrated onions flavored with bouillon powder and vinegar powder -- close to genius.

But there's an elephant -- or at least a giant chicken -- in the room.  This all cost me $40.  Is $40 for even the best possible fast-casual chicken-sandwich late lunch/snack grabbed on the fly while doing errands conceivably worth it?  It makes you see how routine $125 full-service dinners make sense.

I don't want to sound like my mother in the early '60s freaking out in the supermarket cuz a quart (or maybe it was a gallon) of milk went up to 23¢.  But really.

Actually, his uncle's restaurant Peking House. PH used to be pretty popular but the neighborhood has more Thai restaurants now

[splinky]

6 hours ago, joethefoodie said:

Like you, I don't eat much in fast casual places; oh sure, I'll grab a slice or two of pizza (and believe me, $5/slice aggravates me as much as it might shock your mother). I've never set foot in a popeye's, hence I don't know what that's all about.

So I don't know what aggravates me more; your type of experience, or the $21 they (currently) charge for the Plymouth Martini I had the other night.

On the one hand, I KNOW I can make the Plymouth Martini at home, and it will be the same (or better, because I'll have some snacks with it - an olive even) than the one served to me. But I also KNOW I can't (or won't) make that fried chicken sandwich at home, so there's that to think about.

I do think you've hit another point; for the people using this as an early evening out, it's just fine. (Maybe they're pre-gaming, ready to finish their night of fine dining with a Korean rice dog or something.) Are they being served well by it? Probably not as well as they should be.

i spend a lot of time explaining to a 9 year old that we don't order in things we can easily make at home. i made the same faces at her age when my grandmother told me the same thing. the exception is when it's very good and cooking it at home is too smelly or messy, then i cave. i think now people are mad that ordering popeyes from uber eats costs $50 so if a nice fast casual is in the hood, they'd rather give it to them and dine in or pick it up.

[joethefoodie]

1 hour ago, splinky said:

i think now people are mad that ordering popeyes from uber eats costs $50 so if a nice fast casual is in the hood, they'd rather give it to them and dine in or pick it up.

Really good point.