Scoville Hot Chicken (Athens, GA)

311 E Broad St, Athens, GA 30601

Scoville Hot Chicken is a new fast food that started in Sandy Springs, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, in Nvember and added a location in Athens, Georgia, in January 2021. It is located downtown in a location that previously housed another fried chicken place, which went bust pretty fast. I fear the same fate will befall Scoville, who has to compete with local heroes Chick-fil-a a bare 0.1 mile away.

 

Scoville offers only three items: a chicken sandwich, fries, and coleslaw. You order through a machine on the wall, which let’s you pretty much vary everything on the sandwich, including five levels of heat (chill, mild, hot, extra hot, and reaper). Advised by a friend, I take “Hot”, the middle one, in the Scoville Set ($10), which includes the sandwich and fries, and add coleslaw ($2) and Scoville Fry Sauce ($0.50), which is a garlic aioli. The wait is long, between 10 and 15 minutes, even though they only take care of one online order (3 boxes) before me.

 

 

The chicken is big and thick, and you can smell the cayenne when you open the box. It is a bit over cooked, which makes it crispy but hard. The heat is overpowering, but slightly softened by the slaw and the creamy "comeback sauce" -- next time I will add some comeback sauce. The fries are thick prefab crinkle cuts sprinkled with steak salt, similar to Zaxby’s. While perfectly crispy, they are basic and whatever flavor they have disappears in the heat. The slaw is crunchy but without much taste.

VERDICT: 85/100

Scoville chicken offers real (Nashville) hot chicken with a hipster  twist. The chicken sandwich is really the hit on its very limited menu.