Lucy's Fried Chicken

A South Congress spot serving a bottomless bucket of crisp-breaded fried chicken with pickles and jalapenos on the side. Southern sides like black-eyed peas and the novelty of deep-fried deviled eggs round out the menu. After about 15 years, it remains a dependable, come-as-you-are stop for a heaping plate of fried chicken and a cold beer on the patio.

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Lucy's is a fried chicken restaurant with several locations; this entry is the College Avenue room. Pie is the dessert here, sold by the slice: a s'mores pie of chocolate and house-made marshmallow in a graham cracker crust, and a lime pie, a lime custard on graham cracker that gives a tart finish after the fried chicken. Order the fried chicken, then a slice of each.

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Lucy's Fried Chicken is a Southern comfort spot on South Congress serving buttermilk fried chicken, black-eyed peas, and smashed potatoes. Chef James Holmes fries to order and rounds the plates with collards, cornbread, and deep-fried deviled eggs. Casual and unpretentious, it lands squarely in Austin's Southern and fried-chicken traditions and stays a dependable neighborhood stop.

Picks from Austin Chronicle, The Infatuation, and The Infatuation Austin

Chef James Holmes built Lucy's Fried Chicken around buttermilk-brined birds fried to order on South Congress. The plates come with black-eyed peas, collards, and smashed potatoes, and the deep-fried deviled eggs are a signature start. Casual and Southern to its core, it has become a dependable comfort-food stop that also anchors the city's fried-chicken and soul-food conversation.

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Time Out Austin says chef-owner James Holmes had seventies Austin in mind when he wrote this old school chile con carne, building the Texas-style bowl of red on older recipes from the Terlingua chili cook-off with bacon fat, onion, garlic and ground meat at the front. Holmes told the magazine his own blend of chili powders and purees is there to give the bowl a slow afterburn. Order it with the saltines it arrives with, plus the onions, cheese and jalapenos.

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