Parsons Chicken and Fish

For many years, there was a former hot dog stand type restaurant building, down the street from where I live that sat empty.  I was very excited to here that the owners of Longman & Eagle had bought the place and were going to turn it into a fried chicken and fish place.  Parson's Chicken & Fish opened at the beginning of June and has become a hipster mecca.  The small hot dog stand building is still there and will seat about 30 people between the booths and the bar but a large patio has been added in back that seats about another 180.  There is also a red 1970 El Camino with the Parson's logo (a circle with a crossed drumstick and fish skeleton) on both doors that sits off to the side by the large bike rack. While it was a nice day and it would have been nice to sit on the patio, the sitting is picnic tables which all seemed rather full so I sat inside at the bar.  The bar has a nice beer and liquor selection but what draws a lot of people is their Negroni Slushie Machine.  The room is small and painted white with red trim.  There are 4 booths along the front of the room and the bar seats another 6.  There are also a couple of Specials Chalkboards along one wall near the bar.  I had heard before I went that the chicken was something to be had but as the place also features fish on the menu, I wanted to figure out a way to do both (without ordering two entrees and feeling stuffed).  The menu was divided into Raw, Fresh, and Fried with a changing oyster special.  The raw featured sushi, the fresh was salads, grilled chicken, and ceviche, and fried featured fried chicken and fish with hush puppies and baccala fritters.  There were many things that sounded good but I decided to start with the Baccala Fritters.  These are a Portuguese street food favorite that consist of ground salt cod and potatoes made into balls with garlic confit, fried, and served with Lemon Aioli.  While it wasn't purely fried fish, it does have fish and it was like the best of fried fish and french fries.  It was crunchy and salty with a slightly fishy finish but it was fishy in a good way. and I really enjoyed it.

The Fried Chicken is Amish raised and comes in two pieces, a half chicken, a whole chicken, and a bucket which includes Texas Toast, and Cole Slaw.  As I was unsure of the size of the Baccala Fritters and I wanted Dessert, I decided to go small and ordered the Two Piece.  I was given a Drumstick and a Thigh.  Both pieces had a nice crunchy coating and the meat was very juicy (and hot!)  The Amish Chicken was very flavorful and surprisingly much less greasy than I would have expected.

For dessert, Parson's does sell Fry Cakes, which I am sure would be good, but they also recently started selling slices of pie from Bang Bang Pie Shop.  I have been to !Bang Bang! Pie Shop a few times and know that they make really good pie so I knew that it was going to be pie for dessert.  On the day that I went, the slice that they were selling was a Lemon Curd Pie with Whipped Cream and Fresh Blueberries.  The pie was like a less sour version of Key Lime Pie.  I like key lime pie but this was good as well.  The tartness of the blueberries went well with the pie and whipped cream goes with everything sweet.

I really enjoyed my dinner here and I will definitely be back.  The fried chicken is worth a trip but there are other things on the menu that demand investigation.  While the wait time at peak hours can be substantial, especially with a larger party, you can have a cocktail while waiting which certainly helps.  Parson's is certainly worth the wait.