Like sweet potato pie, cornbread, and collard greens, fried chicken is a soul food staple of the South. In New Orleans, the birthplace of Al Copeland and his flagship restaurant, Popeye’s, there’s a never-ending debate around who serves the best fried chicken in town. Although new contenders pop up almost every year, there’s a core of old-school fried chicken purveyors well worth a taste, such as Willie Mae’s Scotch House, The Original Fiorella’s Cafe, and Lil’ Dizzy’s, but for my money, the best will always be Dooky Chase Restaurant.
Well-known for dishes like Shrimp Clemenceau, Gulf shrimp in garlic sauce with peas and mushrooms, or Leah Chase’s famous Gumbo Z’herbes, served once a year on Holy Thursday, Dooky Chase Restaurant is also heralded for their fried chicken, and it should be. “The Dooky Chase Cookbook,” written by the “Queen of Creole Cuisine” Leah Chase, reveals evaporated milk, eggs, and water as the base of her magic marinade, a step resulting in the most tender, juicy, and crispy fried chicken I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat.
A history steeped in civil rights
Founded by Dooky Chase Sr. and his wife Emily in 1941, the iconic Treme neighborhood restaurant started life as a small corner shop selling po-boys and lottery tickets. Their son Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr., a musician who was part of a sixteen-piece jazz band with his sister Doris as lead vocalist, met and married Leah in 1945. Under Leah’s skilled guidance, the Chase family turned the corner po-boy shop and bar into a white linen tablecloth, fine dining restaurant, with Leah leading the kitchen as head chef.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, a case that upheld racial segregation, Dooky Chase Restaurant became a nerve center for discussions and planning around civil and economic rights in the African-American community. The upstairs dining room, a space that reopened just this year, played host to activists, writers, and attorneys such as Oretha Castle Haley, Rudy Lombard, Virginia Durr, A.P. Tureaud, Lionel Collins, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King Jr.
The legend of Leah Chase
Before Leah Chase met her husband, she worked in restaurants throughout the French Quarter. Living under the firm belief that food can bring people together, she became the driving force behind Dooky Chase Restaurant and invited civil rights activists of all colors into her restaurant, even though, at the time, she was breaking the law. Chase once said, “In my dining room, we changed the course of America over a bowl of gumbo and some fried chicken” (via Smithsonian).
Over the years, Leah Chase and the restaurant have become national cultural icons. She’s been featured in several television programs, hosted U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement award in 2016. Even into her 90s, Leah welcomed everyone into her restaurant, kitchen, and heart. Her genuine warmth, generosity, Creole gumbo, and fried chicken will not be forgotten.
