Hotville Chicken
Last Fall, I had a writing assignment to review something. I love food, so of course I wrote a food review. Stephanie loves food, so of course she came with me. The following is my review/essay in full on Hotville Chicken of Los Angeles. Enjoy!
This past August, I paid a visit to Shake Shack, my favorite fast food place in the world. As I stood in line, I struggled with the typical quandary for any Shake Shack regular: the classic Shack Burger or the infamous Shroom Burger. Unfortunately for me, the line moved at an industrial speed, and I found myself standing before the cashier, unready to order. As we exchanged pleasantries, a sky blue flyer caught my attention: “Hot Chick’n.” The ad captured the immaculate, picture-perfect quality of fast-food; its photograph featured a crispy chicken breast, lightly dusted in a scarlet red cayenne seasoning, underneath a saucy bed of slaw, all nestled between two beautiful buns. I took a few moments to stare at the perfectly composed advertisement. Beginning to salivate, I imagined the nasal-filling aroma of hot chicken’s powdered, pepper seasoning. The hot chicken had me in a trance, and I ceded my Shake Shack routine to what I hoped would be a splendid, spicy alternative.
I picked up my order in a metal cafeteria tray and joined my friends at a booth. As I bit into the chicken sandwich, the tinge of cayenne stirred a spastic recollection of the past hot chicken establishments I’d visited over the past year. Howlin Ray’s, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Bruxie, even KFC and Wing Stop. I dabbed a few drops of Louisiana Brand’s “Perfect Hot Sauce” onto the sandwich; it wasn’t spicy enough. The coleslaw was out-shined by two large pickle slices, and its creamy liquid nullified the chicken’s crispy coating. Overall, the Shake Shack Hot Chick’n was just alright. But had I ordered that sandwich a year earlier, it may have been the best chicken sandwich I’d ever had. I grew up craving Jack-In-The-Box spicy chicken sandwiches; they were my mom’s favorites, so of course they were mine as well. So, why was a doubly expensive, doubly healthy, doubly superior Shake Shack Hot Chick’n no longer cutting it? Oh, how flavor preferences change. My palette transition runs parallel to hot chicken’s boom throughout Los Angeles during Summer 2016. As Jonathan Gold puts it, “If you were aware that 2010 was the year that Korean fried chicken took over and 2015 was the year fried chicken sandwiches ruled the land, you’ll know that this [2016] is the summer when everybody started talking about the phenomenon of hot chicken.” Here we are in Summer 2017, and hot chicken is still as popular as ever.
An Angeleno’s first introduction to hot chicken may have been Chef Johnny Zone’s Chinatown alcove, Howlin’ Ray’s. Many have heard the name, but few have tasted the glory, as the restaurant’s 2 hour line is intimidatingly ridiculous. However, Chef Zone’s success has sparked the birth of other hot chicken restaurants throughout our city, and it seems that any restaurant serving fried chicken has to have a “Nashville hot” flavor option. Though this hot chicken enlightenment is creating new buzz in Los Angeles, the dish has been around for quite some time.
Hot chicken’s story begins in the 1930s with Thornton Prince. A handsome Nashville native, he liked to party and get with the girls around town. That was a whole lot of fun except that he was supposed to be “goin’ steady” with the girl he lived with. Legend has it, that one fateful day, the girl had enough, and she decided to get back at Thornton by spicing up his Sunday fried chicken. Her message of anger was sent through heaping amounts of cayenne pepper she seasoned the chicken with. It was a scorching flavor bomb, created to put Thornton under a spicy intoxication, quite a sinister provocation. Unfortunately for her, the man fell in love with the heat and transformed her recipe into the gold standard of hot chicken. Thornton would go on to open the world’s first hot chicken restaurant, Prince’s BBQ Chicken Shack, in Nashville’s Black community of Hadley Park. Though the restaurant has moved its location and is now called Prince’s Hot Chicken, it has remained a Prince-owned establishment and continues to serve the most popular hot chicken in the world. And now, a Prince has graced our city with the newest hot chicken establishment in Los Angeles, Hotville Chicken. Currently a popup restaurant looking for a a brick and mortar “nest” to call home, Hotville is run by Kim Prince, a fourth generation member of the Prince family. Upon learning the history of hot chicken, I knew I had to pay Hotville a visit.
In its transitory state Hotville Chicken runs business in partnership with special dinner coordinator, Feastly. The service aims to support chefs, by taking logistic burdens from them and providing a beautiful Arts District loft as the canvas for their culinary creativity. Feastly’s slogan is a Julia Child line: “Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.” Geared towards the quasi-romantic foodie, the entire Feastly experience leading up to the event felt a bit stilted.
Stephanie and I strolled across 1st Street Bridge, watching the yellow-orange sunset glimmer off Downtown’s glass menagerie. Turning into a back alley, we approached an “artists studio loft,” the front door lit by a single fluorescent lightbulb. The hallways were a combination of red and silver aluminum sheets, and each unit featured large Helvetica wooden cutouts, reading the room number. As we rode the dimly lit elevator to the top floor, I couldn’t help but feel the cool atmosphere of a place that wanted to resemble a hipster Brooklyn apartment.
Leaving the elevator, we entered unit #302 and a waft of warmth enveloped us, carrying the bold aroma of fried meat sans the oil and grime. Champagne gold chandeliers glowed warm hues of home, as they illuminated the room’s rustic brick walls and open wooden ceiling. Picnic plaid sheets accented the sets of plates and plastic cutlery that lay on the room’s two, dark brown, ranch-style tables. Other guests sat on sofas, conversing about their days, while three chefs prepared trays of fried chicken wings for dinner. Kim Prince and her co-chefs welcomed us with soundings of “Come in! Come in!” and “Make yourself at home.” And once all 20 guests arrived Kim gave a short introduction to Hotville and the history of the Prince family (legend of Thornton confirmed), finally ended her monologue by declaring, “Here we come as strangers and leave as family.”
The night’s theme was TaHOTco Tuesday, a spin on the LA culinary staple. The appetizers were straight Mexican: chips, guacamole and salsa, and a small elote. The guacamole and the mango-lime salsa were seasoned on the mild side, and neither really made a statement. This was also true of the elote, and neither had the heat and the salty, lime punch that I’ve grown accustomed to in LA’s Mexican street cuisine. However, the homemade tortilla chips were fried to perfection, and I was reassured that this fried chicken establishment would be sure to deliver. The special drinks of the night were a southern Red Kool-aid and a fruity sangria. Both were extremely fresh, featuring a mature, underlying flavor rather than punching you in the face with fruity syrup. However, overall the flavor action of the meal’s first course was rather mild.
Then the chicken wings came. Kim explained that there were three levels of spiciness, providing a disclaimer that Hotville wings were hot. She explained that it was ok not to be able to take the flavor elevator all the way to Hotville. The mild ones came first, and a tray of whole fried chicken wings was set on our table. I grabbed one between my thumb and index finger and was surprised to feel a thin outer layer that felt crispy rather than thick and batter-fried. The wing smelled peppery and scrumptious. Upon biting into the meat, my tongue was introduced to a classic balance of cayenne and chicken. I expected a flavor blast of the salty skin that I associate with fried chicken, yet the meat was not salty. I did not need to rush for the water to wash down excess salt. Instead, the dish held true to its name, hot chicken; it was spicy, hot, and tasted like perfectly fried chicken. The cooking team’s expertise shined through as the heat levels rose. Like the mild wing, the medium wing was not overly salty, instead a more intensified pepper tasted permeated through the meat to the bone. This is when the mild seasoning of the first course made sense. The spicy kick I expected in my guac and salsa was provided by the seasoning of the hot chicken, and the two went incredibly well together. It was at this medium level that a warm ember began to swell at the tip of my tongue. The medium is the standard hot chicken, the one Thornton Prince first opened business with. The spice level was intense, but it was controlled. With the proper balance of inhalation, guacamole, and Kool-Aid, I was able to contain the spice and still make casual conversation with my girlfriend and the other diners at our table.
There was a family friend of the Prince’s for dinner that night, named Corey. He explained that in Nashville, nobody goes above the medium. Prince’s Hot Chicken has two levels of spiciness above the medium, and Corey recounted that one time he asked for the top level. Ms. André — the current owner of Prince’s Hot Chicken — told him, “You don’t want that one honey,” so he trusted her and never got the spiciest one. This time, I went against Ms. André’s sound instruction and went for the hot. Now, as a Korean living in LA, I’ve had some spicy stuff, so the top spice level wasn’t unbearably spicy, but it definitely could sit with spicier dishes I’ve had. More than my tongue feeling on fire, my lips felt like they had just made out with a hot coal. The fun conversations in the room turned to spastic inhalations of air, as we hoped that the fruity sangria could be the saving grace this time.
Upon recovering from the fury of the wings, the cooking team served hot chicken tacos with the leftover chicken meat. Kim added a nice creamy slaw with a Mexican crema, providing a cool counterpoint to the hot chicken that lay at a the bottom of the homemade fried taco shell. It was an interesting dish, fusing Southern and Mexican cuisine in a way other than Tex-Mex. Had the night started with these tacos, I would have gobbled them down. But the wings had taken their toll, and after just one taco, my stomach was approaching max capacity.
The dessert course featured a key lime pie made by Desiree, Kim’s roommate and Hotville partner. I can’t possibly think of a better closer and counterpoint to the explosion of flavor in Hotville’s hot chicken. The pie was served in individual tin ramekins. A delicate crust was filled with a custardy lime filling and topped with a light whipped cream. Sprinkles of lime zest finished the small dessert, releasing a fresh fragrance that my spice-opened sinuses fell in love with. Each bite of the pie showcased its individual elements: the tart-like texture of the pie crust filled with the umami sweetness of baked molasses; the sour punch of the lime custard, coming in strong; the airy pillow of sweet cream reeling the sourness back to an enjoyable amount; and the fragrant zest making the whole experience refreshing. With every bite, I thought my stomach would burst, but like a Thanksgiving meal, it found ways to stretch itself to new limits.
With the meal over and bellies filled to the brim, we sang happy birthday together to one of the other diners who was celebrating her 40th; Corey sang a few a cappella tunes; and we sat in the warm chandelier light, sharing smiles and laughs and stories from home. As the night wrapped up, Kim thanked everyone for coming to the meal, and announced that leftover wings were free pickings. The whole night reminded me of family dinners I have at my uncle’s house: a waft of warm meat welcomes you in; the food knocks your socks off and takes your tongue to new places; everyone leaves full; and everyone leaves with leftovers. Kim and her Hotville team had successfully made this dinner with strangers feel like a dinner with my own family.
Corey confirmed that, indeed, Hotville Chicken serves the real deal, true Nashville style hot chicken, seasoned to the T. The entire experience was a cultural awakening. Kim spent time explaining the proper way to eat hot chicken — bread, chicken, pickles — something I had never experienced anywhere else. Southern hospitality was on full display, as Kim and Desiree acted as our mothers, constantly making sure everyone got their full portion. There was a real sense of intimacy in the room. I felt it when Desiree would wrap her arms around my shoulders, lean in close to me, and ask if everything was good. I saw it in the smiles of the other diners, as funny stories of the past were shared with everyone. And I experienced it when I reached for the hot chicken at the same time as the person across from me. We looked up at each other with smiles, knowing that what we were eating was good. It’s hard to put a finger on “the one” thing that makes Hotville so great because there’s three easy answers: Kim Prince, Desiree, and Leon (a fifth generation Prince who is Kim’s apprentice). They set the tone of the night with their food, their love, and their beautiful smiles. Dinner with Hotville left me the most full I’ve been over the past few years, and I hope that my time with Kim and her team is just beginning. The experience is something I will never forget, and I wait in anticipation for Hotville Chicken’s official opening.
Chris: 5/5
