- Mike Sula
- Nashville hot, the Roost
Lately, amid the ongoing fried chicken wars, a special caliber of ordnance has been deployed by some of the newer combatants. I’m talking about Nashville hot chicken, a nuclear option if it’s prepared right. Its creator and best-known purveyor is Nashville’s Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, its recipe allegedly born when owner Andre Prince’s great-uncle Thornton’s jealous girlfriend exacted vengeance for his philandering by preparing him fried chicken dredged in a lethal hot-pepper paste. Thornton liked it, and a legend was born.
You’re trying too hard, guys. And you’re not trying hard enough with the chicken.
- Mike Sula
- The Roost’s regular spicy is good too.
Nine bucks is somewhat steep for such a small sandwich, even with two sides, but the Roost trumps the competition by offering bone-in chicken—a quarter bird with two sides for $9, and a half chicken for $13, available in the aforementioned Nashville hot, a lighter, spicy version which is no slouch in itself, and an herb-seasoned offering. The Roost’s batter is terrific, particularly in the case of the spicy variant—light and crisp, it doesn’t overwhelm the chicken in any way. Perhaps crucial to its overall success is the fact that the Roost fries everything to order. Nothing sits around wallowing in its own grease. Biscuits, coleslaw, house-made potato chips, mac and cheese, baked apples, and peach cobbler round out the offerings, but it’s the Nashville hot here that you’re after. It might even make Thornton Price blink.
- Mike Sula
- Leghorn
