WATERSHED

He says:
I would say that Atlanta’s best-kept secret is the off-the-menu fried chicken served every Tuesday at Watershed, but I don’t think it’s much of a secret these days. Although you’ll never see it on their menu, I’ve heard about it from numerous friends, and just last month it was featured in Delta’s free in-flight magazine Sky. And when we visited Watershed earlier this week, the hermetic fried chicken was sitting pretty on everyone’s plate. There’s a reason for it too … it’s really good!

Chef Scott Peacock puts the chicken through two soaks: a brine bath to retain the chicken’s moisture, and a buttermilk bath to tenderize and flavor it. And it works because his fried chicken is some of the juiciest around. I was especially impressed by the breast meat; most chicken joints deep-fry their breasts into a hard, stringy oblivion. Not so at Watershed, where it remains soft and moist. As for the exterior, the Virginia-style lard and butter frying fat produces a superior crispiness without being too oily.

She says:
I think Downtown Boy pretty much summed up the excellence of the chicken. I can’t say that I’ve had any better.

When you order the fried chicken, you get all the fixings along with it: green beans, mashed potatoes, and biscuits served with honey. They are all delicious. The beans are firm and crisp, the potatoes unbelievably smooth and buttery, and the biscuits acceptably good (still no match for Flying Biscuit, though). We had hoped to end our delicious Southern meal with some good old banana pudding, but alas, it wasn’t on the menu.

The rest of the “new Southern” menu certainly looks appetizing, so we’ll have to go back someday and try something besides the chicken.

We say:
We can’t really comment much about Watershed’s menu since we only ordered one dish, but as for the fried chicken, we highly recommend it.



Watershed
406 West Ponce De Leon Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030
http://www.watershedrestaurant.com/