Very exciting news for sandwich enthusiasts who enjoy the Starliner, an objectively good bar about to be made even better by the addition of fried chicken. Fried chicken! At the Starliner! Starting now! Yes, we're all very excited over here, and by we, I mean primarily me.
But if you do not live in Bushwick or Ridgewood (or even if you do), perhaps you and the Starliner (1446 Myrtle Ave #5137) have not been acquainted. To give you a rough outline of its character, it's a big bar with big booths flanking a pretty big dance floor. The inside feels approximately like the hull of a ship, only just a few of your fellow passengers are coyotes who love to disco (check the tableau above the back door). The drink prices are eminently reasonable, and basically it checks all the boxes for a reliably solid Saturday night. And now! Now it will have fried chicken on-site, according to Eater. Not just any fried chicken, either, but famous fried chicken.
Well, famous in Philadelphia. But I think that still counts?
Definitely still counts.
The chicken in question comes from Redcrest, a Philly-based poultry operation run by Adam Volk, the chef-slash-owner. Volk originally started slinging his chickens in Brooklyn (it's available on the brunch menu at Esme in Greenpoint, and in a family-style dinner format at The Exley in Williamsburg, according to Eater) before opening an outpost in Philly. Volk has described fried chicken as one of his favorite foods and "preferred meals;" opening Redcrest in 2018, he told the Philly Voice that he just wanted to "focus on one product and really do it well." But Volk is not just a chicken whisperer; he is also rumored to be a sauce daddy. Per Philadelphia Magazine:
Volk does sauces. That’s his departure from the traditional. His point of innovation. Mostly, they’re for his sandwiches. He does four versions, all of them sloppy. You’ll get some on your face, but you won’t mind a bit, because they’re good. The garlic mayo and spicy full-length pickles on the buttermilk sandwich make it a winner. The Buffalo chicken sandwich is fantastic if you’ve got a couple drinks in you. Served on the side, Redcrest’s spicy honey sauce is nice with the plain fried chicken, and there’s a trashy, guilty pleasure to the ranch that I won’t even try to deny.
What ranch did to deserve such a backhanded compliment, I cannot say, but what I can tell you is that Redcrest will be serving a variety of sauces: Red curry mayo as a standard feature on its $8 fried chicken sandwich (which also includes spicy onions and lettuce); charred jalapeño mayo on its $11 South x Southwest sandwich (incl. lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickled jalapeños as well); buffalo sauce; barbecue sauce; and special sauce, the most enigmatic sauce of all. You can also order fried chicken in quarters ($7 for meat + biscuit; $10 with sides), halves ($12 and $16 respectively, or as a whole ($22 and $28 respectively), seven days per week from 4 p.m. to 2 a. m.
There will also be other menu items, but if you are interested in hearing more at this point, probably the easiest thing for you to do is just go case the chicken cornucopia in person. It's located on Starliner's back patio, and you can access it either by walking through the bar and out the back door, or via a sneaky chicken pick-up window located at 235 Menahan Street, which Redcrest describes as "a small alleyway between Knickerbocker and Myrtle Avenue." I will see you there.
The Starliner is located at 1446 Myrtle Ave in Brooklyn.
