Armed with a gigantic fryer, Mothers Best Fried Chicken opens on Dec. 6 at 11 a.m., with a ribbon cutting by Decatur mayor Patti Garrett.
Backed by Ean Camperlengo and Ross Winecoff of Smiley’s Burger Club, the small Church Street restaurant takes over the former Calle Latina space just steps from the Decatur MARTA station and across the courtyard from The Deer and The Dove. Camperlengo and Winecoff partnered with Argosy owner Armando Celentano and Sceptre Brewing Arts owner Donald Durant to open Mothers Best.
As a pop-up, hosted at Argosy, Sceptre Brewing Arts, and neighboring S.O.S. Tiki Bar in Decatur, Mothers Best was known for crawfish boils, grilled oysters, and other New Orleans-style dishes. However, Mothers Best the restaurant will feature bone-in fried chicken and chicken tenders and a fried chicken sandwich made with deep-fried white meat served on thick, buttery toast topped with crawfish boil pickles and “mom sauce.”
Look for sides of spiced rice, collard green coleslaw dressed in Duke’s mayo, and rich and creamy velvet potatoes — a fast-casual nod to French chef Joël Robuchon’s luxurious pommes purée.
Camperlengo and Winecoff share a history of cooking together. The pair first met while working at a butcher shop in Charlottesville, Virginia, and became fast friends when Winecoff moved to Atlanta. Winecoff is the ideas guy, focusing on recipes, imagery, and design for Mothers Best, including a NASCAR-themed bathroom and eclectic decor throughout the dining room. The restaurant even features a mascot – Brickey the Chickey.
Mothers Best takes inspiration from the fried chicken Camperlengo and Winecoff grew up eating at Southern food chains like Popeye’s and Publix and the counter-service spots at gas stations that served it in brown paper sacks.
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Camperlengo, who grew up in Louisiana and Florida, said they created the recipe for Mothers Best fried chicken by taking a little piece of each of their favorite fried chicken recipes to develop “something a little bit more thoughtful” and “a little bit more honed in.”
Just as KFC has 13 secret spices in its iconic fried chicken seasoning blend, Camperlengo and Winecoff started researching and experimenting to find the right mix that makes fried chicken taste so good. Camperlengo learned “weird things” in his research like the seasoning on Checker’s fries contains powdered ginger and Popeye’s spice blend includes annatto seed, which was historically ground into paste by South and Central American tribes and added to makeup for color.
The Mothers Best fried chicken seasoning blend includes 14 spices – one more than KFC.
“What’s missing in the Atlanta fried chicken scene – and a lot of the South – is identity. Nashville’s got a [hot chicken] style. New Orleans has a Cajun thing. But unless you’re talking distinctively about Gullah Geechee or Low Country, the rest of the southeast doesn’t have an identity unto itself,” said Camperlengo. “We wanted to create [fried chicken] that Atlanta and Georgia, and the rest of the Southeast, could latch on to.”
Once Mothers Best receives its alcohol permit, expect cocktails and frozen drinks like frozen Irish coffee, along with local beers and cans of PBR.
And while the road to opening Mothers Best was long-delayed and often bumpy, the time to serve fried chicken couldn’t wait any longer.
“It’s been a long road,” Camperlengo said. “A lot of permitting, a lot of design, a lot of surprises along the way, but we finally got our business license, we finally got a food service permit, and we said, ‘Screw it.’ We just need to kick the doors open.”
Mothers Best, 406 Church Street, Decatur. Open Wednesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. to midnight.