Fried chicken favorite returns in Clarkston
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An order of fried chicken at Rudy's Prime Steakhouse. Photo: Joe Guillen/Axios
The fried chicken that caught Detroit foodies' attention a decade ago at Corktown's now-shuttered Gold Cash Gold restaurant is back — only this time in a suburban steakhouse.
The big picture: The updated version at Rudy's Prime Steakhouse in Clarkston is made by Gold Cash Gold's original chef, Josh Stockton, and it's still the kind of fried chicken you want to tell your friends about.
Zoom in: Each order ($25) is a half-chicken broken down into five pieces: a thigh, a leg, a wing and a boneless breast that's cut in two.
- It's served with a pepper-vinegar sauce on the side.
💭 Joe's thought bubble: I remember all the buzz around Gold Cash's chicken when it opened, and trying it once.
- Maybe I'm suffering from recency bias, but the chicken at Rudy's is juicier and paired with a better sauce. The old version came with a creamier, bechemel-based dressing.
- I couldn't get enough of the pepper-vinegar. First, I poured it over the chicken. Then I tried dunking the meat in the sauce. I couldn't go wrong.
👨🍳 Inside the kitchen: Much of the cooking process is the same as it was in Corktown. The big difference is the brine that the chicken soaks in before cooking, Stockton tells Axios.
- While the original version used a pickle brine, the brine at Rudy's is citrusy, with freshly sliced lemons, bay leaves, thyme, garlic and other flavors.
Zoom out: Gold Cash Gold — its name a reference to the former pawn shop it once occupied — closed before the pandemic in 2020.
- By that time, Stockton had already left the restaurant for Las Vegas.
- Another restaurant at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Wabash Street, Ima Izakaya, took its place inside the old pawn shop and remains a popular eatery in Corktown's trendy restaurant scene.
What they're saying: Stockton, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, says it took some time for him to accept that one of his most memorable dishes is fried chicken.
- "The longer time has gone on, I kind of really like the idea that the thing that maybe I'm most known for at this point is just good comfort food," he says. "It's just nice to be known for something that people enjoy and that they still ask for."
If you go: 9 S. Main St., Clarkston.
- Tuesday-Thursday, 4-10pm; Friday and Saturday, 4-11pm; Sunday, 4-9pm.