If you’re lucky, you’ve already had the opportunity to sample Chefs Josh Kulp and Christine Cikowski’s market-driven food.
They’ve long been faves at the underground-style Sunday Dinner Club (SDC). If you really won the food lottery, you’ve sampled their delectable fried chicken. And since then, you’ve been waiting. And waiting.
For the past two years, Kulp and Cikowski, along with their business partners (and graphic designers) Jen Mayer and Chris Jennings, have been promising a freestanding restaurant that would feature that poultry perfection. They had the name—Honey Butter Fried Chicken (HBFC)—but the restaurant space was elusive.
Eventually, a spot materialized in Avondale at the corner of Elston and Roscoe, just a short waddle away from Hot Doug’s encased meat emporium. It took awhile to get everything just right, although the upstairs apartment space was quickly converted to the new site for SDC.
Finally, on Yom Kippur, the skies parted. A beam of light shone down on Honey Butter Fried Chicken, at long last open to crowds that wrapped around the block. Sadly, that did not include me, as I was fasting. Sigh. But a visit on Day 2 confirmed what I knew all along: this is the best clucking fried chicken around.
Poultry Nirvana
Why so tasty? Maybe because it’s quality chicken to begin with, sourced from Miller Poultry, always fresh and hormone- and antibiotic-free. Then it’s brined, battered in tangy buttermilk and flour (seasoned with plenty of spice from smoked paprika to cayenne pepper), and fried to a crispy, crackly crunch. As if that isn’t enough—and some fools might think it is—it’s served with a small scoop of soft honey butter, which you are encouraged to drag your chicken through on the way to your mouth. People, it is ORGASMIC.
The fried chicken combos come in 2-, 4- and 8-piece servings ($8/$15/$28) along with the aforementioned honey butter and the world’s most adorable corn muffins, hexagonally shaped and embossed with bees and honeycomb. You could also opt for the Fried Chicken Sammy ($8), a boneless fried thigh served on a buttery bun slathered with candied jalapeno mayo and piled with crunchy slaw; or the Market Salad ($10, add $3 with chopped, cold fried chicken, and why wouldn’t you?), which consists of farm greens tossed with coriander-spiced pumpkin seeds, market-fresh veggies and a “Seasonal Goddess dressing.”
Don’t Forget the Side Dishes
Sides ($3.50 each) include creamy Pimento Mac ‘n’ Cheese with garlicky bread crumbs, sprightly Roasted Sweet Potato Salad in a cilantro-lime vinaigrette, and a surprising Kale and Cabbage Slaw tossed with yogurt-cumin dressing and pomegranate seeds. The sides aren’t huge; I’d recommend three for two people to share. Every day there are specials to try, including a daily pickle ($2); homemade soup ($5), which on our visit was a deeply delicious Roasted Corn Soup with braised chicken and veggies; and additional sides, like Chinese Broccoli with Red Pepper and Chevre.
Don’t be fooled by the name: the Dump Cake of the Day ($3.50) is totally worthy, so named because you mix up the fresh fruit with cake batter and dump it unceremoniously in the pan. As often happens with baked goods, the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Nom nom.
Wet Your Whistle
Attention must be paid to the beverages. The iced tea (a bottomless cup for $2.50) is sourced from Rare Tea Cellars; fountain sodas ($2.50) are from Boylan’s, Green River and Goose Island. This is definitely not Popeye’s.
Beer is available by the can or bottle, and the list is small but well curated. Likewise the wine list, three wines by the glass and six by the bottle, all chosen expressly to pair with that heavenly bird. If you’re a fan of mixed drinks, for $7, the barkeep will shake up a Smokey Derby (Very Old Barton Bourbon, grapefruit and smoked paprika syrup) or an Avondale Ginger Mule (molasses, ginger, Death’s Door Gin, lime and mint) for you.
In a group that wants to linger on the inviting back patio under the heatlamps? You’ll want a pitcher of spiked Damn Good Sweet Tea ($30) or The Hill Pop (lemonade and bourbon) to share.
HBFC is pretty damn inviting, from the chicken-graced Chicago skyline wall graphic to the chicken-coop décor (don’t worry, it’s subtle!). And that chicken? It’s the stuff of dreams.
I’m not sure why you are still reading this. Get in your car and go there RIGHT NOW. Unless it’s a Tuesday, ‘cuz then they’re closed. Currently open for dinner only.
5/5 piggies
Honey Butter Fried Chicken
3361 N. Elston Ave.
Chicago
773-478-4000
