Buttermilk Fried Chicken (Town Hall, SF)

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Buttermilk Fried Chicken - Town Hall, SF

There’s a reason that Town Hall has had buttermilk fried chicken as a menu staple since their inception. It is just awesome. It’s the best fried chicken you may have in the last year, or perhaps your lifetime. It is simply that good. Perfect batter crunch, and sweetly tender inside, the fried chicken comes with smashed potatoes slurred with a fantastic country bacon gravy. (A colleague who had it reckoned it was the best country gravy she’d ever tasted.) The veggies are seasonal: either collard greens or, here, a chop of summer squash and tomatoes. At mid-year, Town Hall’s buttermilk fried chicken is the best fried chicken of 2009, and gets our highest grade (awesome).

Buttermilk Fried Chicken (detail), Town Hall SF

The Grade: Awesome

The Damage: $22

The Skinny: Town Hall

342 Howard Street, San Francisco CA
Phone: (415) 908-3900
Website: http://www.townhallsf.com/

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BAKED CHICKEN (Pressed Chicken)

CHICKEN – Pressed Chicken

Bistro Don Giovanni, Napa CA

 

Baked (Pressed) Chicken, Bistro Don Giovanni, Napa CA

 

The Dish: Pressed Chicken

Simple, hearty dishes make Bistro Don Giovanni a favored dining spot for Wine Country locals in the know. I’ve dined at Bistro Don Giovanni a few times over the past year, and I really love their pressed chicken. It’s baked in the oven then finished in the pan, giving a crisp, crunchy skin that covers a perfectly cooked, lusciously juicy half-bird. 

It comes with a deep swirl of peppercorn gravy, but I always ask for more; it’s so good the amount on the plate is just a tease. The chicken is paired with a nice seasonal vegetable; it might be broccoli rabe or new potatoes, but it’s always equally good. 

The Damage: $19

The Grade: Excellent (4 out of 5)

The Skinny: Bistro Don Giovanni

4110 Howard Lane (Highway 29), Napa, CA 94558-1635

Phone: (707) 224 -3300 

Web: http://www.bistrodongiovanni.com/

Directions: http://www.bistrodongiovanni.com/directions.htm