Sweet Chick

One of Brooklyn’s upscale fried-chicken joints has set up shop on the Lower East Side. Snag a window seat up front for intimate people-watching and proximity to the bar, where you can choose from a handful of beers, canned or on tap, and cocktails like spiked sweet tea or rye-ball to sip on while making your way through the menu of American comfort food. The sloppy duck sliders (a fancified version of Sloppy Joes) are too close to cafeteria food. The macaroni and cheese dusted with Ritz Crackers hits the spot. But the scrapple, soft and creamy inside with a crunchy outer crust, is where it’s at: Pork belly and ham hocks slow-cooked in beer get shredded into a mash of cornmeal, habanero, and roasted garlic, patted into triangles, then fried up and served atop a potent, grainy mustard. Mains like vegetarian meat loaf and beer-brined pork chops are easy to pass up in a fried-chicken restaurant, so order a Sweet Chick bucket and get perfectly crisp and juicy chicken — achieved by a bath in buttermilk and dredge in rice flour — along with a tangy slaw of collard greens and a tender buttermilk biscuit accompanied by three butters flavored with lemon, blueberry, and herbs. Or opt for their house specialty, chicken and waffles. Though the board is full of daily specials, and the regular menu lists fun iterations like the LES-only chicken parm with sun-dried tomato waffles, it’s best to stick with the classic combo and make good use of the syrup and hot sauce on your table. Southern-inspired desserts like chocolate pudding and lemon meringue pie are all fine and good, but the coconut rice pudding topped with fluffy whipped cream, toasted coconut, and little buttery black-sesame cookies might be a lighter way to end a heavy meal.