National News Round Up: Fried Chicken, Donuts and Duck Meatball Sandwiches

See that, Nashville? That’s what’s coming your way when Federal Donuts opens its first ever outside-of-Philly expansion in your town.

You lucky bastards.

Apparently, the good people of Nashville have been wondering lately just which big-time James Beard Award winning chef was going to be moving into the former mattress store in East Nashville. Yesterday, they got their answer. Cook and Solo has chosen Nashville as the first city which they will grace with a brand spankin’ new FedNuts as part of their new view toward national expansion.

According to Eater Nashville, there isn’t much more information than that, seeing as the lease has just been signed, but trust us: whatever wait you have to endure will be worth it, even in a town that takes their fried chicken as seriously as Nashville does.

This news, of course (along with today’s annoumncement of the opening of Ai Ramen at Liberty Place), also triggered yet another update from the Foobooz Fast Casual Tracker. So you should definitely check that out. FC is the new big thing in the restaurant world. Philly is pretty good at it. And everything you need to know about our local operators and how they stack up can be found right there.

In other news, a little bit closer to home, High Street On Hudson (which, at this point, has won just about every award short of a Nobel Peace Prize after opening recently in the West Village) just got itself named as one of Food & Wine magazine’s restaurants of the year. It is now keeping company on that list with places like Death & Taxes in Raleigh, North Carolina, Launderette in Austin and Boston’s Townsman.

Here’s what F&W has to say:

New York City: If I were going to spend the entire day at a single restaurant, it would be High Street on Hudson. In the cozy West Village space, F&W Best New Chef 2014 Eli Kulp has teamed up with baker Alex Bois and pastry chef Samantha Kincaid to offer an incredible around-the-clock array of dishes. In the morning I’d start out with the Hickory Town breakfast sandwich with Lancaster bologna, fried egg and pickle mayo. Lunch would be the duck-meatball sub. At night, my order would be honey-glazed chicken with chicken-skin Caesar. It’s designed for sharing, so hopefully I’ll have made a friend during my dream day.

All that, and they don’t even serve donuts. The world is an amazing place.

High Street On Market [f8b8z]
Federal Donuts [f8b8z]
Foobooz Fast Casual Tracker [Philly mag]