Which came first? Chicken or egg? (Joella's, Con Huevos)

[Robin Garr]

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

LEO's Eats with Robin Garr

Joella's Half Bird with "Ella's Fave" spice


Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

"Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" Have you ever wondered about the ultimate answer to this existential question? Who hasn't? We found a tasty answer at Con Huevos in Clifton: It's both! Order up a ration of Tamal de Mole con Huevos, and you can have your egg and your chicken too, all gussied up in spicy-savory Mexican flavors.

But wait! There's more! Just out the road a piece, the buzzy new Joella's Hot Chicken is all about chicken, all of the time, and there's nary an egg in sight. Eat all the chicken! Yes, you can do that at Joella's. the latest concept out of the productive mills of local eats entrepreneur Tony "BoomBozz" Palombino.

Joella's appears to be a chain-in-the-making; its website already has spaces lined up for branches to come in Middletown, Lexington and Indianapolis. It's located in the Frankfort Avenue quarters that long housed a BoomBozz Pizza, now moved into a larger space on the strip in St. Matthews. Joella's kicks the decor up a notch with a log-cabin look that's more country than urban, as befits a dish and a vibe in which fried chicken and barbecue meet and mingle.

Hot Chicken has long - well, 70 years long - been a quick-food delight in Nashville, where it enjoys iconic status akin to Louisville's own Hot Brown. It got its start as inner-city soul food, fried chicken jacked up with fiery sauce and served on white bread to catch the bountiful drippings of red grease.

Joella's menu is simple: Choose your chicken plate, with two sides included, from a dark-meat quarter ($8.50) to a half-bird ($12). A plate of three wings or three tenders goes for $9; you can mount 'em on a waffle with spiked honey or maple syrup, if you like. Choose your plate, select your spice from five levels ("Southern = No Heat" to "Fire-in-da-Hole = Inferno.") ...

Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/which ... or-the-egg

See this column also in LEO Weekly:
http://www.leoweekly.com/2015/11/which- ... r-the-egg/

Joella's Hot Chicken
3400 Frankfort Ave.
895-2235
http://joellashotchicken.com
http://Facebook.com/joellashotchicken
Robin Garr's rating: 86 points

Con Huevos
2339 Frankfort Ave.
384-3027
http://conhuevos.com
http://Facebook.com/ConHuevosRestaurant
Robin Garr's rating: 91 points

Now you've got me imagining a hot-chicken sandwich with an easy fried egg on top, and it sounds delicious!

FYI the breakfast burrito at con huevos is insanely good. If anyone likes breakfast burritos.

I was involved with my company as competitors at the recent resurfaced fried chicken throw down and we were lucky enough to get to sample all of the other competitors entries. I didn't think Joella's was hot at all. For something that's supposed to be known for it's heat, not necessarily the newly opened Louisville hot chicken places but the original Nashville concepts, I wasn't impressed by the heat at all. Now Royal's, their hottest was pretty hot. But I'll take good old southern fried chicken with hot sauce any day. I don't like sacrificing flavor just for heat.

We've already been four times, everyone in the family loves it. Of the six heat levels, I've had 2-4 and #2 is indeed very hot, #3 has some sting as well. I'd try it at the restaurant -- very good at a reasonable price.