We have been coming to The Front Porch in the Mission for fried chicken ever since they opened more than 6 years ago. They had a change in chefs a few years back where Chef Mark Goodger took a great product and somehow made it even better. It’s one of our go-to places for great, consistent Southern food, and it got even better when they were granted a full liquor license about a year ago.

From their short but solid cocktail list we ordered the New Orleans classic Sazerac (Bulleit Rye, Herbsaint, Peychaud Bitters) and an original Southern-inspired Porch Swing (4 Roses Bourbon, Triple Sec, orange and lime juices) to get started:

The mixed-green salad came with bitter lettuces, shaved lemon cucumber, avocado slices and brioche croutons. The buttermilk ranch dressing added a nice tang to this solid salad:

Their bread service consists of made-to-order cornbread bites and spicy butter. If we could order more of these, we definitely would, but they served as a good intermezzo dish while we waited for our chicken:

We ordered shots of Bourbon with Scrimshaw Pilsner chasers to go with our chicken. The generous pours provided us tastes of a classic Woodford Reserve Bourbon and a less familiar Cyrus Noble Bourbon, a locally-owned Kentucky Bourbon revived from the Gold-rush era. Maybe it was the spicy butter from the cornbread bite, but the Cyrus Noble had strong flavors of vanilla and cinnamon (in other words, extremely drinkable for a 90 proof whiskey):

The Fried Chicken is available as an individual order of 3 pieces or as a bucket of 9 pieces. Not wanting to fight over the chicken, we heeded their bumpersticker slogan: “f***et get a bucket.” The bucket contained the poultry with popped popcorn and it came with sides of potlikker-style collard greens and mashed potatoes smothered with gravy:

The Front Porch makes their own hot sauces that go really well with the fried chicken: a hot jalapeño sauce and a super-hot habanero sauce.

A close-up of the chicken pieces:

The Front Porch’s fried chicken unfortunately keeps us from ordering other items on the menu, but we can attest that they also make a good burger. Their menu now features a burger topped with pulled pork. We promise to order it next time — unless we get the fried chicken.

http://www.thefrontporchsf.com/