![]() ![]() ![]() Soon after, Hattie B's opened its first location in Midtown (another followed in West Nashville), bringing local craft beer and slightly more upscale ambience into the mix while making hot chicken accessible to those with a more casual level of commitment. Whereas Prince's concentrates entirely on hot chicken, these spots - all of which have their own proprietary spice blends - opened the funnel for new devotees by adding a few other dishes to the mix and experimenting with new chicken preparations like Pepperfire's fulfilling marriage of tenders and deep fried grilled cheese, the Tender Royale.Īround that same time, former Nashville mayor Bill Purcell (also a Prince’s regular) started the Music City Hot Chicken Festival. That began to change in the 2000s with the opening of spots like Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish (owner Bolton Mathews' uncle had opened a spot in the '80s but then fell ill Mathews uses that same family recipe) 400 Degrees (its owner, Nashville native Aqui Hines, grew up eating at Prince's) and Isaac Beard's Pepperfire. Today, Prince’s great-niece, Andre Prince Jeffries, carries on the family legacy and closely guards the exact recipe - if you have a loved one you're currently hating, you’ll have to invent your own culinary punishment, or try therapy.Īs profound an institution as Prince's became, it didn't quickly become flush with imitators, perhaps not surprising given the degree of bravery and/or madness required of its customers. Far from the tourist traps, it sits in a nondescript mall, where food pilgrims from around the world converge. Fast-forward more than 70 years, and Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack is still considered the mecca of Nashville Hot Chicken. Prince, soon single, honed the recipe (basically a flavor bomb of oil and a proprietary, cayenne-heavy spice mix) and opened a restaurant. Well, she showed him a business opportunity, anyway. Putting a malicious twist on the old saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, she prepared Prince a buttermilk-fried chicken breakfast, doused in what she believed to be an intolerable amount of cayenne pepper. Back in the 1930s, Thornton Prince III’s girlfriend was so fed up with his womanizing that, one night when he stumbled into his Nashville home late and full of excuses, she decided to teach him a lesson. ![]()
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