One of the newest and greatest fried chicken dishes in the Bay Area is right next to the Menlo Park Caltrain station, from a chef who was named "Best Chef - California" at the 1993 James Beard Awards — and who was even a student and a friend of Mr. Beard himself while cooking at a fabled Kansas City restaurant in the 1970s.
Celebrity chef Bradley Ogden has taken up residence on the Peninsula, cooking on the line some nights at Bradley's Fine Diner, where he serves fish and chips and "Steak & Potato" with Julia Child's creamy potato gratin recipe. Ogden's Ive's fried chicken ($29) is made with Petaluma-raised, free-range Rocky chicken's thighs, wings, and breasts. It's delightfully tender, with a lighter-than-normal crust free of grease and crumbs. Like a perfect tempura coating, it doesn't shatter but gently dissolves in the mouth.
"Ive's" refers to an old-fashioned fried chicken joint in Midland, Mich., that Ogden frequented during his youth. Humble origins, yes, but there is no escaping that this fried chicken is priced for Sand Hill Road venture capitalists. (Just to give a comparison, the recently opened Trestle in San Francisco offers similar spruced-up diner classics, and for just $6 more than this fried chicken diners can have a full three-course prix fixe meal).
This fine diner concept doesn't come totally out of left field for Ogden, who had been doing elevated comfort food long before the fad sprang up after the recession. After serving as executive chef for Campton Place when it shared the limelight with Stars as being San Francisco's "It" restaurant in the '80s, Ogden founded Lark Creek Group and went on to Vegas to create a burger that GQ's Alan Richman named the best in America in 2009.
Bradley's Fine Diner is only a small step below this ambitious cooking vision, except with a train station outside instead of a Celine Dion concert. In Vegas, Ogden was one of the very select few big name chefs on the Strip who lived in the desert and cooked at his restaurant. He deserves applause for avoiding over-expansion and the celebrity trap.
Luckily, Ogden's butterscotch pudding from his Lark Creek days ($6) resurfaces here. A little digging beneath the whipped cream yields one of the more consistently satisfying Bay Area desserts. Go crazy dipping the oatmeal cookie in the pudding, a most enjoyable way to cap an evening. All in all, Ogden's career is such a fascinating story and the mighty fine fried chicken makes Bradley's Fine Diner a big ... deal.
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