The fried chicken at Hill Country Chicken in Manhattan was pretty good, so were the french fries and cole slaw. The chicken was fried to perfection, it would have been really great if they hadn’t sprinkled so much salty seasoning on it at the end. And I like a lot of salt.
The owner of Hill Country Chicken, Marc Glosserman, is a Texan whose grandfather was once the mayor of Lockhart. Glosserman also owns Hill Country Barbecue Market in Manhattan. I have never been to the barbecue place, but I couldn’t resist trying the chicken.
I took Sam Sifton, the restaurant critic of the New York Times, to Babe’s Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke when he visited Texas just before the Superbowl. In his article, Sifton wrote, “New York has nothing to compare with the excellence of Babe’s fried chicken.” New York was in the middle of a fried chicken fad, he told me and everybody up there was obsessing about chicken. His comments made me curious to try the NYC version.
He was particularly disturbed by the Doughnut Plant, a place that dipped raised doughnuts in lavender, expensive chocolate and vanilla bean glazes. Boo is Korean-American from L.A. and he knew a lot of Korean-Americans who grew up working long hours in their parents’ doughnut shops to help the family survive. In light of their struggles, he found the yuppie doughnuts contemptible.
Boo wasn’t a big fan of New York’s BBQ joints either. In his treatise “Death by BBQ,” Boo described a solo cross country pilgrimage from D.C. to Austin looking for authentic BBQ. I was so impressed by Boo’s devotion to BBQ that I asked him to have a beer with me while I was in NYC last May.
The yuppification of blue collar eateries is a fascinating subject. We wrestled with the issue in building El Real Tex-Mex Cafe. I also addressed it in the Houston Press in a review titled “The Inkblot Test” in which I compared the venerable Triple A diner on Airline in Houston with a yuppie imitation of a diner downtown. (The downtown place is no longer in business while the Triple A is still around.)
I liked the Triple A, but my girlfriend at the time liked the yuppie place better. And she had a good point: Entering a greasy diner full of truck drivers was not the same experience for me as it was for an attractive blond in high heels. Her insights made me more sympathetic to the fact that we all see the world from a unique point of view.
My ex-girlfriend would probably love Hill Country Chicken. The food is tasty, the place is cute, they’ve got Modelo in a can. For under $15, its a helluva cheap dinner in NYC. Maybe it isn’t Babe’s Chicken Dinner House or Barbecue Inn, but if they laid off the seasoning sprinkler a little, it would be a damn good imitation.
Thanks, I will put Hill Country and Babe’s on my list to visit. Love Barbecue Inn.
Have you been to Willie Mae’s Scotch House in New Orleans? I have never had better.
Haut fried chicken is on the menu at nearly every upscale restaurant here in Atlanta, but I still haven’t found any that beats what they served at Spanish Village on Almeda.
Great article!
Barbecue Inn is owned by the family of kids I went to school with. I went to grade and middle school less than a 1/2 mile from there and ate there frequently as a kid. It was years before I went back, but it is still one of my favorite places for comfort food.
Next time you’re in Austin try Galloway on E.12th st. a stone’s throw from Sam’s Barbecue.
It’s the best fried chicken in town by a wide margin and you’re not going to get anymore authentic.
An elderly black lady will prepare your lunch in a cast iron skillet.
Her son will serve it to you off a steam line like a classic meat n 3 in B’ham.
Galloway is open only for lunch and breakfast Mon-Sat.
Robb, great piece. I have “real” “authentic” fried chicken place for you to try one of these days. There is a tiny restaurant in the small Jeff City, MO airport called Nick’s Family Restaurant. They serve fried chicken and country ham, family style with all the goodies (cole slaw, buttery grean beans with ham, and mashed potatoes with gravy). It is greasy and salty and stupendous. I was the closest thing to a yuppie for miles (and I am something of a redneck, truth be told). We watched military helicopters land outside the window and ate til we couldn’t move. If you ever have a reason to be in Jeff City, try Nick’s.
I recently found one restaurant in the city that does a pretty decent job. But you can only get it certain nights of the week. Hundred Acres is probably my favorite restaurant for a lot of reasons. The last time we were there I had the fried chicken, which I’d been told was brined for 24 hours. It is served with a blue cheese and apple arugula salad, and is just divine.
I tend to skip Hill Country for a lot of reasons. My husband gets their stuff every year at the Big Apple Barbecue, and never once have I been impressed.
Personally, I’m thinking the best place to get fried chicken in the tri-state area is probably my kitchen. I do it the way Nanny did it. Brine for 2 days, season well, and cook it in a well seasoned cast iron skillet.