Arriving at the Plough towards the end of a set by Frank Drake and the Aristocrats (did I mention that the Plough might also offer the best country music of any Irish bar in Cambridge?), we settled in to a booth amid an atmosphere of pubby conviviality.   The chicken and fish menu was straightforward, with a handful of combos and sides.  We each had a three-piece dinner with cheddar grits, collard greens and cornbread. I washed mine down with a Magners.

The chicken was juicy and the crust crispy and well-seasoned.  Our worst fear – blandness – was totally unfounded.  The cornbread was sweet, the collards smoky, and the cheese grits, well, cheesy. Everything in its place.  Perhaps not the healthiest dinner of the week, but most food groups were present and all were satisfying.

As we left, the Frank Morey Band was just getting started.  The Plough crowd showed no sign of any care in the world, blissfully disinterested in the looming shadow of Monday morning. If Brigadoon were every Sunday night and came with southern cooking and country swing, I think it would be something like this.

The Birds:

Popeyes: the incumbent. The chain with soul. As before, we chose mild.

Coast Soul Cafe : the local star. Soul is their middle name. Just one option: chicken.

The Beverages:

Can Feixes Blanc Seleccio 2006: The upstart. A dry Spanish white in a tall bottle.

Huber Hugo Grüner Veltliner 2006: The house favorite. A fresh lower Austrian with a mod label.

Trimbach Gewürztraminer 2005: The curveball. Alsatian sweetie recommended by a true Southerner.

The Business:

After a relaxing tour of host chef J’s garden, chef P, teacher J, photographer E and yours truly got down to the business at hand. We tasted the two dry wines with the two chickens, then ventured into the Gewürztraminer with the dessert chickens. OK, they were the same as the dinner chickens, but you get the idea.

First the chickens. Coast is a local place in Cambridge, a tiny, fragrant spot with just two stools and a little space to stand while waiting for a takeout order. Well-regarded by Yelpsters and others, Coast is a carryout destination for people from all over town. The chicken is cooked to order, and took 20 minutes for my order of four pieces to come from the kitchen, each one individually wrapped in foil. The menu includes chicken, beef, pork, fish and even some BBQ. The sides list shows off the place’s soul credentials: mac & cheese, collard greens, candied yams, cabbage, corn, black eyed peas, jag (a Cape Verdean dish), and more.

We put all the chicken in the oven to bring it back to eating temperature, and served it up. There was an immediately visible difference.

Popeye’s chicken (top) was the color and texture we’ve come to expect of fast-food fried chicken, but Coast’s was several shades darker. Was there some dark spice in the batter or was it just cooked longer or somehow differently? We don’t have a sure answer, but the pictures on Coast’s web site suggest that we might have gotten an abnormal batch. It didn’t taste burnt, but it did seem to be overcooked. Inside, Coast’s chicken was less moist than Popeye’s, in both dark and white meats. (As an aside, it’s worth noting that Coast servers only breasts and thighs as by the piece fried chicken, with wings available in some configurations; Popeye’s has all four traditional chicken parts.) Most surprisingly, Coast’s chicken was not even as spicy as Popeye’s mild. Bland is too strong a word, but it could have used salt. It would be fair to say that Popeye’s has too much salt for some people, but certainly not for me. Coast was less oily, too.

To be fair to Coast, we might have to place another order, but for now, Popeye’s retains the top spot for fried chicken. On to the question of wine pairings.

First, we tried the Spanish Can Feixes. Bright and dry with a bit of apple, we quickly deemed it agreeable with the chickens, and pleasant if not particularly exciting on its own merits. Hard to go wrong for about $10-12. The Huber Hugo Grüner Veltliner is J’s current house white (after a long reign by Pinot Grigio) so our expectations were high. Initially similar to the Spaniard, this wine was a little more complex with some additional citrusy things going on. As in the past tasting, the additional acidity served well in pairing with the chickens. For the dry wines, we declared the Grüner winner by a nose. Highly recommended for about the same very reasonable $10-12.

Based on a tip from a friend with some knowledge of things Southern, I also picked up a bottle of Gewürztraminer, a 2005 Trimbach for $20, to be precise. It’s not a dessert wine by any means, but it was a great deal sweeter than anything else we had paired with fried chicken. With a lot of honeydew and a little spice, I suspect it might have worked better with spicier chicken, and we agreed that it was delicious but not the right pairing. E added some raspberries from the garden, gotta try that.

Neither as scientific nor as conclusive as last time, this test again reaffirms the need for more research. Perhaps it will become a monthly symposium. Chef P threatened to someday show us how fried chicken is really done, apparently with an overnight buttermilk bath and a cast iron skillet.

As the conversation careened from the perils of lending out your apartment out for the making of a film (Tip: run the contract by your lawyer) to the benefits of separate bedrooms for spouses (Consensus: separate everything else with common bedroom might be better) to the taste of wooden shoes (I swear, it never happened, and if it did, the shoe was clean), we noticed that the sunset was turning the sky a very interesting color and I snapped a quick picture.

Stay hungry. Stay curious. Stay in touch.

Where do you even begin to determine what wine goes best with fried chicken? (For the record, we decided by fiat that Popeyes is the best fried chicken commercially available, thus avoiding a much more complex and arduous tasting process.) The guys working in liquor stores had vague answers, sometimes recommending beer instead or subtly suggesting the whole project was insane. The internets, usually a font of complete (and completely unreliable) information, came up on the short side, with just one helpful review from wine review online. The twitterati came through with some ideas, @gracepiper suggesting, “I’d go for a crisp acidic white to cut through the fat,” and @popeyeschicken shilling ,”Cakebread Chardonnay goes great with mild! A South African Shiraz really works well with the spicy. Bon-appe-fide!” @garyvee was silent on the matter, claiming to be on a plane en route to Bordeaux. What-ever. Searching on cork’d was similarly unhelpful. I can’t help thinking the info is in there, but somehow trapped behind a lousy search system

I picked up five wines, some from recommendations, some from guesswork, and bagged them in random order. Here are the notes, in the order tasted with white meat or dark, but remember that nobody knew what they were tasting at the time.

#1: Vernaccia di San Gimignano Tenuta le Calcinaie 2007
We were crushed when the bag came off. We really like Vernaccia. We love Tuscany. And it’s DOCG and biodynamic, too! But this one was just blah. Maybe too young, maybe not quite cold enough, it just wasn’t crisp or bright enough for Popeyes salty crispy gamy greasy goodness. The fact that it had a slight nose of grass was ironic, since that’s where much of it ended up. A bummer at $16.

#2: La Vieille Ferme Cotes du Luberon 2007
Generally acknowledged to be superior to #1, this Rhone white called “the old farm” had a not one but two chickens on the label but still didn’t cut the grease enough to make it a happy match. There was some evidence of oak amongst the generally fruity flavors, but we were wishing for more crispness. Not too shabby for $9 but save it for more delicately prepared chickens.

#3: Casal Garcia Vinho Verde (NV)
One guest identified this one immediately, citing the slight fizz and bright citrusy nature. We agreed at once that the necessary acid was present to put up with popeyes grease and salt. Some even opined that this wine might have applications outside the fried chicken world. Grapefruit, lime, and slight mineral notes made some wonder if this was a Sauvignon Blanc. Halfway through the flight, this Portuguese $5 bottle was in the lead.

#4: Oyster Bay 2007 Sauvignon Blanc
I think if the wines were known in advance, the smart money would have been on this Marlborough NZ white. And maybe if it didn’t have to follow the Portuguese it would have fared better. A typical (which is very good) but unexceptional example of its kind, Oyster Bay delivered a dry and fruity experience that was firmly ok with the chicken, especially the white meat. A solid performer at $12.

#5: Cakebread Cellars 2005 Chardonnay
It was obvious from the first sip that this wine was not like the others. “Napa chardonnay!” some cried. “It’s like licking a barrel” said others. Oak, vanilla, butter and all the hallmarks of a mature California Chardonnay were nicely balanced. Even guests who were disgusted at the very idea of tasting wine with fried chicken grudgingly sampled this one. It was Popeyes own recommendation, but did it match up with the chicken? The majority said no, not so much, the buttery nature didn’t jibe with the fried chicken. A few dissenters preferred it, though. At $46, you’d better be sure.

At least for this round, we declare Casal Garcia Vinho Verde Branco the best wine partner for Popeyes mild fried chicken. There’s plenty of room at our summer table for humble tasty treats.

So, what have we learned here? Well, first and foremost, we learned that further testing will be necessary. Without even expanding our research to spicy chicken or red or rose wines, we notably omitted Champagne, Pinot Grigio, and Gruner Veltliner, three very likely candidates for good fried chicken matches.

We also learned that price and conventional measures of wine quality don’t always mean as much as they’re cracked up to, especially when making non-traditional pairings. In terms of all the various advice we received, I have to hand it to @gracepiper of Fearless Cooking for being most prescient even without recommending a particular wine.

Humble thanks also to the Josephine ave crew for putting up with this affront to their gourmet sensibilities. Several more blog posts could – and should – be written to celebrate the lamb burgers, hummus, smoked chicken salad, trifle and cupcakes and other amazing treats on offer.