The Other Critics

Kauffman Tastes Several Chefs’ Fried Chickens; Miller Tours New Hayes Valley Eats

Beast & the Hare's fried chicken and cornmeal doughnuts.
Beast & the Hare’s fried chicken and cornmeal doughnuts.

Jonathan Kauffman notes that fried-chicken nights are kind of a trend, with some restaurants choosing to keep the “sometime food” off the regular menu in favor of a weekly special. He tours several such nights around town, including chef Ronnie New’s Thursday night fried chicken at Magnolia (“It has a little heat to it, his coating, and its thickness helps make up for the fact that he’s frying the meat without the bones to keep it moist.”); Firefly’s Tuesday special fried chicken (“I wouldn’t call it the chicken of my dreams; it’s a young, small chicken, paler in flavor and not as moist in the breast and drumstick as the thigh and tiny wing.”); and Local: Mission Eatery’s Friday fried birds (“But the meat! So juicy, so shiny and moist, I had to double-check to make sure it was fully cooked.”).

Beast & the Hare’s fried chicken and cornmeal doughnuts.

He neglects to mention other great fried chicken in town, including our favorite at Beast & the Hare — which was once a Sunday thing, but now that they’re dark after brunch on Sunday, the chicken’s taken a permanent spot on their menu. But the point is that there are so many fried-chicken nights and good fried chickens in town now, you can basically eat it every night for a couple weeks without a repeat. [SF Weekly]

Virginia Miller gets first dibs on an early review of Dobbs Ferry (409 Gough Street), where she recommends you “skip the unbalanced cocktails” and head for the crispy sweetbreads or the “uniquely comforting” chicken scarpariello. She also recommends asking for extra sauce for the eggplant parm pizza, which she says is “pleasant” but “too bready.” Also, Miller calls Two Sisters Bar & Books (579 Hayes) “the kind of neighborhood café I’ve been waiting for” and she loves their blanched brussel leaf salad. And of the Proxy outposts of Smitten Ice Cream and Suppenkuche (a.k.a. Biergarten), she says Biergarten isn’t worth the wait and Smitten’s ice cream isn’t “near as delicious as the fun of watching it being made in liquid nitrogen machines.” [SFBG]

Kauffman Tastes Several Chefs’ Fried Chickens; Miller Tours New Hayes