Cathy2 wrote:Ripp’s Tavern in Ladd serves their fried chicken with a serving of cracklin’s. I called a friend who lives in the region. She had been to Ripp’s and considered it the greasiest chicken she ever encountered. Something the church people warned me about, then said once you get past the grease it tastes soooooo good.
I finally had my opportunity to visit Rip's, which was quite an interesting experience. I went with my friends who live in the area whose initial thoughts on Rip's were greasiest chicken ever.
We walked in after 8:30 PM on a Friday evening. We saw tables were available in the dining area so we beelined toward them. However, a waitress acting as lionness at the gate wouldn't let us seat ourselves until we placed our food order. Once we had given our food order, then she told us to wait. We watched her place our order with the kitchen, tidy up a table for us, then she escorted us to our table.
I saw in the rear was an open kitchen with big picture window for the cooks to watch us and us watch the cooks. I walked over with my camera to watch, though I never took any pictures. They had a large pot with a seasoned flour slurry in it. To prepare our fried mushrooms, they dipped mushrooms in the slurry then use a spoon to fish them out and toss them into the fryer. As they tossed the mushrooms, an arc of seasoned flour slurry droplets fell into the fryer. The chicken and fish were also coated in this slurry and tossed into the fryer. Truthfully, I am not sure if they had slurry dedicated to mushrooms, fish and chicken or whether it all came from the same pot. It just seemed like it came from the pot.
The complimentary cracklin's everyone had told me about in advance, were not precisely cracklin's. They were the fried droplets of the seasoned flour slurry fried to perfection:
The next plate to arrive was the coleslaw, which came with a fork. This was a creamy coleslaw with a vinegar undertone, which cut the accumulating grease in your stomach.
The freshly dipped and fried mushrooms were terrific simply because they were really fresh instead of the common variety fresh from the freezer. Naturally they tasted a bit like our cracklin's simply because they were born from the same slurry.
When we ordered our fried chicken, we could choose from dark or light. Dark was priced at $3, while light was $3.50 and a much bigger portion. Fresh from the grease, these chickens were very hot. I inquired with the waitress if I could have a knife. She looked surprised explaining, "We have no knives. You only got a fork because you ordered coleslaw." I guess I should have known
not to expect a knife.
Dark
Light
These chicken pieces were pretty large sized, though expertly cooked with nothing overdone or worse underdone. Again there was the sameness to the crust from all the fried foods being dipped in the same seasoned flour slurry.
None of us had fish, though the portions walking past us looked very good.
If a dessert was offered at Rip's, I am unaware of it. We were full from our dinner and maybe a bit overwhelmed by the quantity of fried food just eaten.
The next day I was at Henry for the Illinois State Morel Hunting Championship. I found the couple who recommended Rip's last year and told them how much I enjoyed the experience. They were quite tickled I remembered and actually followed through on their advice. A woman in her late 30's overheard our conversation who happened to be from Ladd. She advised us she has been going to Lanuti's for their fried chicken and Italian for over 35 years. When I inquired if she had ever been to Rip's, she claimed never to have set foot in there. While I admire her loyalty, I think it would not have hurt her to try the competition at least once. I wondered if the town is split between Rip's and Lanuti's loyalists.
When we returned to the car, there was another store front with a sign reading something like, 'Fried Chicken USA.' It was a defunct business. While this was Bureau County, it did underline the advice from last year, "The bars all compete by offering variations of fried chicken in LaSalle County." Obviously the fried chicken wars are not contained to LaSalle.
Lanuti's
302 North Main
Ladd, IL 61329
815-894-2124
Ripp's Tavern
311 North Main
Ladd, IL 61329
815-894-3051