Prince's Hot Chicken
 Nashville, Tennessee        Date of Visit  05/18/17         http://princeshotchicken.com  

How do you go to Nashville and not do at least one hot chicken place? We are going to the two best known to outsiders, the original and the modern. The originator is Prince’s Hot Chicken. Supposedly the story goes an unhappy southern wife created a stinging chicken dish to punish her husband’s wicked ways. Problem was, he loved it and they ended up with a restaurant doing just that, trying to punish people who continue to line up for their spanking.
 

The place is insanely small, under clean, confusing as ordinal analysis proof theory, and I’m going to tell you right off the bat…they don’t care. They are clearly not about any of that. Come get your chicken, eat, go. We got a lot more people to feed. The window to order is in the back and it takes some time to divine that literal crushing mass of people aren’t waiting to order, they are waiting for their chicken or a place to sit. If you are lucky a local or fellow traveling do-gooder will hip you to the fact that you aren’t standing in line…you’re just standing…getting hungrier…realizing you are going to be eating in the rental car. I hope there’s not a $250 surcharge for chicken smell and it’s limited to smoking.

We ordered, waited, sweat, saw hope dashed, saw others get pushy, saw a hit and run in the parking lot, heard them stop calling numbers within 20 of ours for quite some time, stepped up to asked if maybe I missed the number, saw any semblance of hope replaced by despair. And then 72?! Did I hear that right? We’re 72. I grab the bag, steal some extra napkins from behind the counter and dash to the car. This better be good.
 

Where The Anticipation Begins
 

It is. We had a leg quarter mild (mom), a breast quarter medium (Steph), and the special chicken tenders…Xhot (stupid). They now have a XXXHot but I don’t dislike myself that much. I like the original much more than I liked the new fangled shop. The chicken is crispy, juicy, and flavorful with just a dusting of heat…but that ain’t hot chicken. The hot chicken is hot, there’s a grainy spice clinging to the breading and the extra hot will numb your lips and get a nice little sweat going…but it tastes kinda awesome. Unique. Fiery. Delicious. Better than the other place, by a clear distance.
 

The fries get a dusting of one of the spice blends, it’s a nice touch to elevate standard crinklers. The potato salad is chock full of yellow mustard and the slaw is creamy with a bit of tang. Nice representations of classics. We also bought a couple of treats from the woman camped out in front of the window where you order, pecan pie and butter cake with cheese, both were fine. Go for the chicken. Call ahead. Make sure you have a comfy car in which to dine.
 

Desserts