Which came first, the fried chicken or the champagne?
The answer doesn’t matter. What is important is that they belong to the same sentence, and to the same table.
It may seem incongruous to those who equate champagne with sparkling social events or haute cuisine, but wine lovers have long known the unusual relationship between ethereal champagne and crispy fried chicken.
Why not? Champagne is excellent with all kinds of food, and excels especially with fried dishes. Try it with tempura, fried whitebait or chips. But something about the crunch of the crust, the popping of the bubbles, and the salt, spice, and rich chewiness of the chicken make for a great combination. Some may want to get technical, explaining how the acidity of the wine reduces the fattiness of the chicken, but I’m more concerned with the magic.
A new restaurant in the Flatiron District, Coqodaq, leverages this affinity. It offers great Korean-style fried chicken and one of the best champagne lists I’ve seen, with 100 bottles of sparkling wine, mostly champagne, at $100 and under (quite reasonable for a Champagne restaurant these days), along with much more, such as highly coveted bottles, flying over this sign.
This magnetism between high and low is nothing new to the world of fashion and art. Pairing pearls with, say, a jacket and jeans might once have been transgressive. So is his art Takashi Murakami, which combines traditional Japanese techniques with elements of popular culture. Now, they’re timeless pairings, even if, like fried chicken and champagne, they seem to break the rules.
That wine has rules of any kind is both unnecessary and scary. Many people cannot enjoy wine for fear of breaking a taboo or committing a faux pas. Others miss out on many of the pleasures of wine by never exceeding the limits set by these so-called rules. Most of these rules aren’t even rules, but tired customs, conventional wisdom that first served as a general guideline but then became rigid, snobbish, and exclusive.
Did anyone ever decide that champagne should only be paired with highbrow cuisine? For that matter, what’s not highbrow about great fried chicken, great pizza, or barbecue, if we’re talking in terms of quality rather than pretense? Pizza and barbecue can also pair beautifully with champagne, as well as Barolo, to name another wine usually reserved for special occasions.
I believe in matching the wine to the occasion. If I were sitting at home with a bucket of fried chicken in front of the TV, I might not open a bottle of champagne or any other expensive wine. I might have a few glasses of good cava, or maybe some riesling or Beaujolais because, after all, any good, fresh wine will go well with fried chicken. Maybe I’ll save the champagne for a more festive gathering with friends.
Coqodaq isn’t the first restaurant to combine fried chicken and champagne, though it’s probably the most ambitious. Bubbles and Birds was a midtown Manhattan bar with the same laser focus while Bubbledogs in London he paired champagne with hot dogs.
Nor is it the only place to play the high-low game. Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook, Brooklyn, had an excellent wine list with lots of bubbly before the pandemic. The restaurant is rebuilding it. Once I drank with Barbaresco Angelo and Gaia Gaja, the great producers of Barbaresco, with pizza at La Pizza Fresca near Union Square, before it closed. Most recently, I stopped at La Barbecue in Austin, Texas and noticed a small but very good champagne display there. Being on my own I had beer with the lovely brisket and thoroughly enjoyed it.
These kinds of unexpected juxtapositions are wonderful opportunities that come along very rarely. They’re also just the beginning of the delicious discoveries to be made from breaking the convention. At a recent meal, I ordered a glass of white wine with a salad, then a glass of Chianti Classico with a pasta with pork ragout. I love Chianti with cooked tomato sauce, but I still had half a glass of the white, ah Contra’ Soarda vespaiolo from Veneto, so I tried it with the ragù. It was so good, I finished the white and left most of the red.
Did I know I would love the combination? I had no idea. It was a lucky find that will last with me.
People often open expensive and prominent wines for their symbolic value, enhancing whatever meaning a particular occasion has. This is completely understandable, but the joy of the wine itself sometimes disappears under the weight of what it represents. With fried chicken, a wine like Champagne has a chance to be more than just a delicious wine. The informality of the food makes the wine easier to enjoy for what it is, rather than what it represents.
Many discoveries await. I can attest that chili con carne with beans is great with Cornas. Riesling is delicious with pizza. Maybe it’s time to try even weirder combinations.
In June 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the United States in an attempt to strengthen their relationship with England in the event of war with Germany. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited them to his estate in Hyde Park, New York, where they attended a picnic. The main course was hot dogs. The king apparently ate two and, according to the headline in the Timesdrank beer with them.
A perfect combination. Champagne would have sent the wrong message about democracy. In that case, the associations were inevitable. But I bet it would be great with hot dogs.
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