Addendum (to Ad Hoc)

The elusive Ad Hoc Fried Chicken is no longer quite as elusive. Back when Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc restaurant first opened in Napa, people flocked to Ad Hoc to try their fried chicken, served every other Monday night. Some people turned it into a hobby of sorts, building calendars to calculate exactly which Monday nights served up the fried yummy goodness.

In fact, we even attempted the Fried Chicken recipe at home before even having tried the original. The chicken is brined overnight in a mixture of herbs, seasonings and citrus. This keeps the meat super moist, even the chicken breasts.

Though we never made it to Ad Hoc for our first taste of their crispy foul, we got the next best thing by fanagling a late night reservation to Bouchon in Beverly Hills for their ad hoc "Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Night". For $36, you get 3 large pieces of chicken, 2 biscuits with gravy, mac and cheese and pickled cabbage. Needless to say, it was the best fried chicken we ever had. Moist, flavorful with super crispy skin.



Having tasted that yummy goodness first hand, we couldn't wait for fried chicken night to come around again.  So, you can imagine our excitement when we found out that behind Ad hoc, Addendum has erected as a gourmet lunch to-go operation running Thursdays through Saturdays. Picnic benches are set up all around the garden for you to eat-and-run. For $16.50, you get chicken or beef brisket, with two sides and corn bread. The chicken was signficantly smaller than the portions we had at Bouchon. Half the price, half the chicken, I guess.


1. Ad Hoc Friend Chicken - What can we say? Yummy, yummy and more yummy. The cornbread was ok - we liked the Bouchon biscuits alot more. Not pictured was fresh corn succotash which was also super delicious - fresh and sweet.


2. Beef Brisket - The meat was surprisingly tender. We would have preferred a bit more flavor or some BBQ sauce to go along with it. The sausage was nothing special - can get it anywhere. We recommend skipping the meat and going straight for the fried chicken.

A small taste of what we experienced at Bouchon.  Not quite as good but enough to hold us over until the real deal comes back around our way.