What is there to say about ChocoChicken, the new sugar-drenched eatery from Umami-founder Adam Fleischman? Well. There is chocolate for days, to be sure. There is chocolate when you enter the cafeteria-meets-sports bar space in the form of an aromatic wave of cocoa and maple syrup, a smell that lingers throughout your meal lest you forget where you are. There is chocolate in the Choco Chocolate Martini ($12), a thick concoction made with Grey Goose, vanilla, Godiva milk chocolate, dark chocolate and a shot of espresso. You can order chocolate ketchup to accompany your duck fat fries ($4), and a mini ramekin of white chocolate mashed potatoes ($4), which is suprisingly decent if you can ignore the fact that those small chunks floating among the potatoes are bits of white chocolate butter. And then there is the actual chocolate chicken, available à la carte, as a hoagie or sandwich, or as part of a combo (the Crack Combo, which include one thigh, one breast and two sides, is the most sensible option at $17.50). In all cases, the chicken—tender and retaining an impressive amount of juice after being brined for 36 hours—is covered in a dark brown chocolate coating that boasts both sweet and spicy notes. Dip it in one of Fleischman's unique sauce combos: miso ranch; the bee sting, made with habernero-infused honey; saw mill gravy; or the aforementioned chocolate ketchup. On the chicken sandwich ($12), it comes buried below a mound of slaw and pickles between a house made choco roll—one of the better options, as the slaw cuts the overall sweetness of the sandwich.
At ChocoChicken, you will learn quickly that there is such a thing as too much chocolate, and so you might opt for a refreshing cup of raw crudite ($4) that looks like a mini vegetable garden, or a corn salad ($4) that is heavy on the dressing. Or you will realize that your cholesterol has already been severely compromised, and will go balls to the wall by ordering an Electric Chocolate S'mores moon pie ($5; all of the desserts here come from Cake Monkey). The pie is decadent, heavy and sweet—if you can handle that over the course of your entire meal, you might find ChocoChicken to be the gimmicky hangout you've been looking for.