First Bites: Hattie B’s Hot Chicken
Nashville hot chicken is here, there’s beer, get over it. Better yet, get over to the old Easy Way on Cooper and give it a try.
Look, I know we have a thing with Nashville. Go way back and they took our music industry. Not so long ago they took the NFL team we thought was ours. They think they can tell us what to do. All that.
But, hmm. Tell Boo Mitchell we don’t have a music industry. And let’s see, Titans or Grizzlies? And statues — yeah, keep on telling us what to do. Point is, we’re OK here. Let Nashville do its thing and we’ll do ours. But when it comes to food, forget the rivalry. They have our chicken and now we have theirs.
“I think it’s going to do wonderful,” said Tawanda Pirtle, co-owner of Jack Pirtle’s Chicken. “It fills a niche we don’t have here, there’s nothing else like it in town. There’s room for all of us and we are a welcoming city.”
So now to the chicken. Hattie B’s opened Wednesday and I went to the Tuesday night soft opening for my first taste of Nashville hot chicken. I’ve heard about it for years and made many plans to try it when in Nashville, but you know what else Nashville has that we don’t have? Insane traffic. That ruined my plans to get to Prince’s more than once and the lines outside the Hattie B’s in midtown Nashville just made me shake my head.
Tuesday was my first. I took support with me: CA coworkers John Beifuss, Chris Herrington and Geoff Calkins went with me for a competition of sorts, a showdown to see who could take the heat. We all could, it turned out.
Hattie B’s serves chicken five ways: Southern, plain ol’ chicken with no cayenne; mild, which is a big leap from plain when the pepper comes in; medium, which would be my default; hot, which is another leap in the amount of heat with the introduction of habanero peppers; and then the crazy stuff. Damn Hot is indeed just that, a ghost pepper dusted bird that will set you on fire. Want to take it further? Shut the Cluck Up is three times as hot as Damn Hot and want to see what it does? Check out the video on The Commercial Appeal’s Facebook page to see CA employee Kris Ruaro have a meltdown.
I ordered a leg quarter and loaded up on sides. The chicken was just how fried chicken should be— crisp and juicy. The batter was hearty enough to stand up to the hot treatment but not heavy. The sides were great foils, particularly the cole slaw and the potato salad, both creamy and cool in temperature, two heattaming characteristics you’ll embrace.
How the chicken gets so hot is interesting. After being battered and fried, the hot versions are flavored by mixing the pepper blends with chicken grease and basting the chicken with it. You’re getting fried chicken coated with grease, but don’t act shocked. You know this isn’t health food.
The collard greens were also good, and while I can’t say that I could taste the pimento part of the pimento mac and cheese, it was a fine bowl.
Hattie B’s is fast casual, so you walk in, place your order and take a number. Local beer is on tap—Ghost River, Wiseacre, Memphis Made and Meddlesome, maybe another one or two, plus a couple of Nashville beers. Order a brew. Have a seat. They’ll bring your food to you and then you can see what it’s all about.
Hattie B’s, 596 Cooper, is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday. Call 901) 424-5900 for more information or visit hattieb.com.