Hattie B’s Hot Chicken (Nashville West)
5209 Charlotte AvenueThe thing about figure skating competitions, there’s a lot of down time but not enough to fully get away from the rink for a while.
Our morning at the Centennial Sportsplex was pretty full. Each kid had two events in the morning and they were essentially back-to-back-to-back-to-back. It wasn’t until mid afternoon we finally had a break. B was done for the day but L still had one more event. There was a little over a two hour gap and it was time for Dad Dash to make a run.
B and I first headed to Phillip’s Toy Mart to look for Needoh’s. The obsession with those things is nuts. We heard this toy shop has them in stock fairly often. It was later in the day which never really works well for Needoh hunting but I told him we’d give it a shot.
We didn’t find any Needoh but he did find some Specks fidget toy that he wanted so we grabbed that.
When we got in the car, I asked what he wanted for lunch. He said Taco Bell. I didn’t want Taco Bell but my plan was to get him food, drop him off at the rink then go get something I wanted.
That plan took a little longer than expected because the Taco Bell closest to the rink turned out to be inside the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. I didn’t want to waste any more time driving five miles to the next closest Taco Bell so we just figured it out and found the Taco Bell in the hospital food court.
I dropped him off then I headed back to a place we passed on the way to the rink every morning. It was on my short list of places I wanted to eat at long before we made the trip to Nashville.
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken is a Nashville based chain of hot chicken restaurants with just over twenty locations, mostly in Nashville but they have branched out to Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Chicago and have a few locations in Texas and Alabama. The Hattie B’s I chose is on Charlotte Avenue/US-70 at the intersection with 53rd Avenue on the west side of Nashville. The building is kind of tucked in to a pretty small property on the corner that was originally a Krystal (another southern fast food chain on my list). With a bit of a redesign to the building, it became a Hattie B’s in June of 2014 as the second in the chain. The original opened in Midtown in 2012.
The order counter is kind of crammed in to the side of of a much larger counter right when you walk in. At busy times, there is a seperate entrance for dine in and carry out/pick up orders but I was there in the middle of the afternoon so there wasn’t a separation of the lines. I didn’t really know where to stand as I waited my turn so I was kind of off to the side by a garbage can. I still kind of needed to look over the menu so I just found a spot out of the way where I could still it.
The dining room has kind of that road house feel to it. It’s not a fast food dining room but it’s not a fancy restaurant either. The floors are finished concrete and there is a lot of light let in by the large windows that face out towards Charlotte Avenue. The tables and chairs are kind of on the cheaper side with the chairs being those somewhat uncomfortable metal chairs that almost feel like patio furniture.
There is a second dining room that also opens up on to both a front and back patio area. This area uses picnic tables for seating instead of those chairs.
I put in an order for a fried chicken sandwich with fries, an order of pimento mac and cheese, and a peach cobbler. The sandwich and fries were for me but the mac and cobbler were for J. I got the order to go so her food would still be warm when I got back to the rink. The total cost was just under $25. It took probably ten minutes for my name to be called. I grabbed the bag and headed outside.
I chose to eat the sandwich on the hood of my car. It’s really not a sandwich I should be trying to eat sitting in the stands at an ice rink or while I was driving.
The Fried Chicken sandwich is a really crispy, really juicy piece of a boneless, skinless chicken breast. I chose to have chicken coated in a medium hot sauce. If I was sitting down in the restaurant I might have went hotter but didn’t want to do that on the go. The sandwich comes with slaw, Nashville Comeback Sauce and kosher pickles. I kept the slaw off but added a slice of cheese. The sandwich is easily one of the better hot chicken sandwiches I’ve had. It was so crispy on the outside but the meat was so soft and juicy. The medium sauce was actually pretty perfect as I got some of the pepper taste I wanted but it didn’t scorch my tastebuds. I wasn’t really hungry after I was done but I did consider going back in and ordering another sandwich just because it was so good.
The fries are a pretty standard fast food crinkle cut but they do have House Seasoned Salt that gives them a bit of a kick. I don’t always love crinkle cut fries but I couldn’t get enough of these. They were so crispy and just had a good flavor from the salt. A really great fast food side.
The Pimento Mac and Cheese is an interesting flavor combination. The macaroni noodles were swimming in a thick sharp cheddar cheese sauce that included red pimentos. I know pimento is kind of a southern flavor and it was tasty but I don’t think I’d want to eat too much of it. J ate about half of the cup but I don’t know if she was just not hungry or didn’t like it. I will say I’m glad I didn’t get it for the kids because I know they wouldn’t have liked it.
The final thing I got for J was the Peach Cobbler. This cobbler is one of the things Hattie B’s is really known for. It’s a mixture of tender sweet peaches and crispy dough pastry chunks. I don’t like peach cobbler so I didn’t even ask for a bite but I don’t think J would have given me one even if I did. She put down the mac and cheese to get to this. Pretty sure she had no problem finishing this one off.
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken was one of the places I really wanted to get to while in Nashville. This one was kind of by our hotel so we drove by it every day. I headed back when I got the opportunity to eat. I knew no one else in my family would have been interested in but I really wanted a sandwich. Very happy to say I got my sandwich and crossed this place off my list.
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