Charlotte By The Palate- Episode 1

On our first stop, Charlotte By The Palate visited The Nappy Chef, an unassuming new restaurant on Albemarle Rd. When you visit, you’ll see the Nappy Chef himself getting dirty in the kitchen.

The Nappy Chef

Initially, I wasn’t sure that we should try it, but the lack of parking, full outdoor seating and long line of (dare I say) Black people made me feel like this may be a winner. Generally when there’s such a long line of people the wait at a small place like this is RIDICULOUS. On this Saturday however, we were in and out in under 20 minutes.
The Nappy Chef offers what I like to call “bar food” = wings, burgers, fries, tacos. They also offer specialties like chicken n waffles on Sundays. You’ll need to tune into their Insta for the latest on new and short-term menu items. Also, there’s something called a “Boss Plate” that I kept hearing people order. This consists of 6 wings, a burger or taco and fries for $15.
We decided to go for the wings on this trip. After scanning the flavors on the menu, we were immediately intrigued by Henny Honey Hot. Yes, please. We also chose to order a Sweet Thai Chili wing plate. A wing plate comes with 6 wings and fries and will cost you $9.95. Pretty steep in my opinion. The ranch is sold 2 for $1. Red flag.
After a brief wait, we received our food sprinkled with paprika for extra pizzazz I suppose. We were greatly underwhelmed when we opened our boxes to find what looked a bit larger than Cornish hen wings fried and tossed in sauce. (For $10??? Can I get a drink with that?)

Baby Wing Plate

Size aside, the sauces were decent. The wings were cooked pretty well. The fries are your average run-of-the-mill pre-fab frozen potatoes. But the ranch. My goodness that was the worst part for me. Ranch is always in the same sentence as wings in the south and Charlotte By The Palate is definitely a self-proclaimed “ranch connoisseur”. I knew by the cheap cost of extra ranch that this was gonna be terrible, but I had hope.... Alas, it’s not as bad as Kraft.
Overall, I give The Nappy Chef 2 out 5 stars. There are definitely better local spots the get wings from that are cheaper and offer better ranch. I do applaud the small business for branching out and opening up a store front. I may be convinced to go back and try a burger one day.

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