Takeout is still an option, though the restaurant is increasingly focusing on serving folks eating in the country-chic dining room. Also recommended are the restaurant's cool selection of shirts and sweaters, which you can wear to show off your Livermore pride. The wine list by co-owner Sarah Niles is accessible and fun, with plenty of sub-$50 bottles from California and abroad. On the rest of co-owner and chef Bill Niles’ menu are dishes like toast with sweet peas and caviar butter ($15), which combine seasonal ingredients in novel and delightful ways. Crisp chicken, incredibly sweet Brentwood corn and dirty rice are just the solution for the 'What day is it again?' blues.

Range Life's buttermilk fried chicken and beer special ($28), offered Monday nights, is so good for mental health thankfully, the restaurant has been continuing with this tradition during the pandemic. If you’re looking for more dish-centric top lists, check out my rosters of the Bay Area’s best burgers, burritos and sandwiches. I quickly realized that it’s not a binary: You’ll likely find both at most of the places on the list. After doing my research, it was clear that fried chicken is one of the great platform foods, capable of donning the customs and flavors of cultures all around the world.įor this list, I contemplated whether to keep it to sandwich-centric spots or places where you can get traditional meals made up of pieces of fried chicken. It appeared on menus at soul food restaurants, Cambodian shops and French bistros. It was glazed with spiced butter, mango sauce, garlic and soy sauce, and hot pepper jelly. Chicken was stuffed into sandwiches, served atop salads, pulled out of steam tables and presented on waffles.

Nashville’s hot chicken is obviously a huge influence on the Bay Area’s fried chicken scene, but there’s way more to it. Featuring over 70 traders including 5 themed bars, eclectic shops and micro restaurants offering delicious dishes and tasty treats from six of the worlds seven. In service of putting together this list, which stretches from Wine Country to Oakland’s Fruitvale to the breweries of San Jose, I tried seemingly endless styles of the dish. Fried chicken is an icon that needs no introduction, but let me give it a shot.

Fried chicken hop alley