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Map by Kagan McLeod and Jonathon Rivait
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Stephen Tanner is sick and tired of fried chicken. Cornered one night at Egg, his last place of employ, the founding chef of the now-defunct Pies-n-Thighs voices his irritation with the dish’s ubiquity. “You can even get it in the bowling alley,” he gripes, speaking of Blue Ribbon’s Cajun-spiced version at Brooklyn Bowl. It’s true—and partially Tanner’s own fault—that the nexus of New York fried chicken has shifted, seemingly overnight, from Harlem, where such faded relics as M&G Diner and Pan Pan have gone under, to Williamsburg and Greenpoint, where the down-home flavor fits the boho-hipster vibe. There’s greasy-spoon chicken (Jimmy’s Diner), chicken and cocktails (Walter Foods), and “chicken-fried chicken” (Enid’s). Even the vegan fast-food joint, Foodswings, serves southern-fried “drumsticks.” You can trace the dish’s trajectory from Pies-n-Thighs, to Egg, where Tanner reproduced his flour-and-seltzer recipe, over to Roberta’s in Bushwick, where fellow P-n-T veteran Carolyn Bane can be found cooking “Bane’s Fried Chicken” for culinary pilgrims like Michel Bras, who tucked into a crispy serving when he passed through town recently. This fall, Bane and partner Sarah Buck will reopen Pies-n-Thighs in new digs, this time without Tanner. He’s rumored to be involved with a new project of his own at the former Black Betty space nearby, which Tanner says will serve bar food like Applebee’s, “but better.” And will there be fried chicken? “Maybe a thigh.”

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