Chicken & Waffles at Merl’s

Trey Popp rolls into Merl’s, a 20-seat diner at 16th and Dickinson. 

The meat-heavy menu loads the bases with bacon — pork, beef, turkey — and drives them home with the same trifecta in scrapple form. Six and change buys a platter with a meat and two eggs plus grits or home fries. But for my money, the only thing worth considering is the one in black marker. Merl’s chicken wings sport a crispy batter that pops with a few drops of Bayou Heat hot sauce, and meat as moist as it gets. The sprinkle of powdered sugar is all her Belgian waffle needs to play sweet foil to the savory fowl.

 

Merl-y Gates [City Paper]