• Maroon's

  244 W. 16th Street, 212-206-8640

  I can’t help it. I attack Maroons’ peppery-and-crackling-on-the-outside, hot-as-hell-but-tender-on-the-inside fried chicken the way Robin Leach chugs free champagne. —HAL RUBENSTEIN

• Blue Ribbon Brooklyn

  280 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, 718-840-0404

  Why this trademark dish tastes better in Brooklyn, I don’t know. It's best eaten in one of the booths, with a passel of keening children. —ADAM PLATT

• Charle's Southern Chicken

  2837 Eighth Avenue, at 152nd St., 212-926-4313

  Crispy, flavorful, and uncannily moist, the bird’s the finger-licking star of the $9.99 lunch buffet (not to knock the collards and black-eyed peas). —ROBIN RAISFELD

• Taste

  1413 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 212-717-9798

  Agreed, Charles is king. But I go fairly gaga over Scott Bieber’s poussin, too. Plus, the Kentucky native’s got southern-fried credentials. —ROB PATRONITE

From the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine