Chickin' it in the ATL: Part 4

Special Note:
Until now, our quest for the best fried chicken in Atlanta has only covered classic down-home institutions. But these days fried chicken is perpetually popping up on the menu pages of upscale eateries. Serious grub pundits suggest that the recession is the reason behind the recent profusion of these in-vogue comfort foods. I, for one, find it ironic that a historic economic downturn could somehow inspire an $18 plate of fried chicken. Now, without further ado:



South City Kitchen is nestled in the heart of Atlanta's faux-hawk district on Crescent Avenue, housed in a historic bungalow amongst the pseudo-glitz of Midtown's under-occupied condo ghetto. Appropriate trappings for a restaurant so tied into all things "New South".

So yes, I'll admit that I went into this tasting a bit biased. The notion of upscale or contemporary southern cuisine has always struck me as a ploy to trick patrons too pretentious to visit unrefined eateries into paying too much for a cheap plate of food.

Those misgivings aside, what arrived at my table was an utterly delicious, albeit slightly arrogant, example of the dish:



The adjective that best describes this bird would be "succulent". The quality of the cut is second to none. I imagine this chicken preferred to called a fowl and clucked with an affected British accent.

VERDICT: 4.65 Napkins