The best fried chicken sandwiches | Let’s Eat

Fried chicken sandwiches are everywhere nowadays. But who really does them right? Also this week, we feature a Mexican ice cream business that makes a hundred or so flavors, steer you to the most refreshing espresso tonics, and take you inside a restaurateur’s mansion for sale.

⬇️ Read on for a quiz.

— Mike Klein

A rare positive from the pandemic was the influx of tasty fried chicken sandwiches. (They’re great takeout/delivery items, so restaurateurs devised new options.) I set out to identify two dozen favorites from around Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania and New Jersey suburbs. There’s even a 24/7 chicken shop, for those who need them round the cluck.

The Rojas brothers, natives of Mexico, know their ice cream, and their shop La Guerrerense wows aficionados with nearly 100 ice cream and popsicle flavors. (A hundred! That’s helado choices.) Colleagues Michelle Myers and Gabe Coffey partner on a cool story/video about their business journey and this sweet hot spot in the Italian Market.

Para leer esta historia en español, haga clic aquí.

Check out these eight Philly places for international ice cream.

Chef Robert Sliwowski, aka crab cake king Bobby Chez, is selling his Moorestown mansion as he and his wife downsize. They’re asking 4.4 million clams (to mix seafood metaphors). I tell his story and take you on a house tour.

Fondant? It’s “the devil’s sugary play-doh.” Some of Philly’s most creative bakers are selling old-fashioned layer cakes decorated with elaborate buttercream icing. Colleague Zoe Greenberg gets to the bottom of this buttercream revival.

The espresso tonic, the carbonated coffee beverage, has been named “drink of the summer” by Food & Wine. Pshaw, says colleague Hira Qureshi, who’s been drinking them for years. She shares her favorites, including some creative riffs from local baristas.

Boozy milkshakes and adult slushies come in all flavors and sizes. Colleague Henry Savage describes them as “the center of a Venn diagram satisfying your sweet tooth, keeping you cool, and even indulging nostalgia.”

Take this as a sign of the mid-July opening of Vinyl, featuring a cocktail bar and live music, at 215 S. 15th St., near Locust. Historians remember the location as an Applebee’s and, for decades previously, as Bookbinder’s Seafood House. Vinyl’s owners include Rob Wasserman (Rouge, Twenty Manning).

This trend of tearing down a restaurant to make way for a car wash? The Cherry Hill Diner served its last meal in April. Now, Patch reports that the former Otto’s, a German-American restaurant in Horsham, is going the same route.

After many years working for Jose Garces and Stephen Starr, chef Dave Conn is now a restaurateur. With wife Sarah, he’s just opened Alice on the corner of Ninth and Christian Streets in the restaurant-rich Italian Market. The cozy bistro, with a 10-seat bar, is set up for both special and ordinary occasions. Above is a flatbread, one of the dishes Dave makes on a charcoal grill.

Moustaki, the casual Greek gyro spot behind the Franklin Institute, is in expansion mode. This week, Pete Kada and Kosta Pavlidis opened at 120 S. 15th St. (that tiny little spot under the parking garage at 15th and Sansom Streets) and plan a late summer-early fall opening at 335 E. Girard Ave. (corner of Columbia Avenue) in Fishtown, the former Central Pizza. Like the original location, the Fishtown location will offer pizza.

Tommy’s Tavern & Tap, a North/Central Jersey bar-pizzeria chain, opens Wednesday in the former TGI Friday’s at 40 Centerton Rd. in Mount Laurel. The website 42Freeway says Tommy’s also plans to take over the shuttered Houlihan’s at Cherry Hill’s Market Place at Garden State Park.

Gaucho’s Prime, the new Brazilian steak house in King of Prussia, has opened. I asked the owner to tell you how to pronounce the name.

Move updates:

Cafe Lift’s new location (1124 Spring Garden St., where 12th Street and Ridge Avenue meet Spring Garden) is due to open any day now. It’s a move from the original location nearby on 13th Street.

Liberty Kitchen’s new location at Front and Master Streets in Fishtown (the former Good Spoon Soupery), a block and a half north of the previous location, is due to open July 6. LK will have seating this time (16) and will be an all-day café with a new menu from executive chef Beau Neidhardt (ex-American Sardine Bar/South Philly Tap Room), including breakfast, a coffee program from Herman’s Coffee, and lunch/early dinner options. Owners Matt Budenstein and P.J. Hopkins call this “Italian deli meets a diner.”

Redcrest Kitchen in Queen Village has simplified its menu and cut prices as it’s given up on destination dining after nearly eight months. The signature chicken sandwich is now front and center.

Mike’s BBQ in South Philadelphia is being sold as founder Mike Strauss weighs a move with his wife to the Philippines.

Whew! Restaurant owners in the eye of the I-95 bridge collapse tell my colleague Erin McCarthy that it could have been worse.

The Ram’s Head Inn, the Shore-area landmark in Galloway Township that was spared the wrecking ball a few months ago, has been sold to Atlantic City Rescue Mission, reports the Press of Atlantic City. It plans to renovate it as a restaurant and hotel and house its culinary program there.

Tomb it may concern: Old Pine Community Center is raising funds via a happy hour in the historic Old Pine Street Church graveyard near Fourth and Pine Streets from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday. The $35 ticket includes two glasses of wine from Mural City Cellars, a personal cheese board created by From Marjorie, and child care. Details here.

The Bertucci’s location in East Gate shopping center in Mount Laurel has closed. The once-ubiquitous chain is now down locally to Springfield, Huntingdon Valley, and Newark, Del.

Knoebels, the upstate Pennsylvania amusement park, has been ranked No. 1 for park food in the country. What doesn’t it have?

A) a baked-potato kiosk

B) a pierogi stand

C) a restaurant called the Alamo

D) a food court serving fried alligator

Think you know the answer? Actually, it’s a trick question. Knoebels has it all. Join my colleague Jason Nark on a wild food ride.

What’s going on at that place that used to be W/N W/N on Spring Garden Street? — @mriversr

That was also a pop-up by Heirloom Kitchen in 2021. It will soon become a cocktail/wine bar called Poison Heart. Stay tuned.

📮 Have a question about food in Philly? E-mail your questions to mklein@inquirer.com.

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