I don’t know how many of you TRY, but looking for real fried chicken at a bar has become a hopeless case in the Philly area (even in town.) Real, bone-in fried chicken is one of those foods that is craveable, and that no substitutes will quench. There are some very decent places around here to get a drink OR some crispy, juicy fried yardbird, but to have both together has recently required buying a pint and eating the Krispy Crunchy in your car at the Lukoil parking lot at Belmont and City Line.

Researching today, I saw the Grog menu had chicken and waffles. Now I have seen a number of abominations of this combo with wings, nuggets, fingers, etc. standing in for the REAL chix. I took a gamble, and trekked to Bryn Mawr to a place I had not visited since around 1983. It may have been Mallory’s or even You Bet Your Life (You Beat Your Wife) back then.

More or less a Villanova hang (with a few old farts like myself) my expectations were low. Chicken and waffles is a combo that sort of dates back to 1600s Amish, but in modern form can be traced to Wells Supper Club in Harlem in the late 30s where it was frequented by Jazz royalty like Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. A few years later it migrated to Jazz joints of South Central L.A.

So boring history aside, how did Grog do ? Maybe I was just so happy to see this at ALL, I was not hyper critical, but it fired on almost all cylinders. A half chicken (breast, wing, leg and thigh, shatteringly crisp skin, and crunchy breading. Sweet syrup, ketchup (I’m not sure why) and HOMEMADE mashed potatoes (just a little lumpy.) I just tried a taste of the waffle (it was fine) as I was cheating on KETO bigtime anyway.)

Verdict is, it was a DAMN good dish, worth $20. The $10 a shot for Tullamore Dew was a bit more than I’m used to but hey ….

Worth checking out if you are fan of the dish. Next time I’ll ask for some hot sauce.