Philly's latest best fried chicken: Adsum

CORRECTION: Everything old is new again, as they say. Like fried chicken. It's hot and re-happening. Hey, if Mad Men can be cool again - skinny ties and '60s martinis, the uptown picture of retro - why not a shout-out for its country-picnic cousin?

Why not, indeed? I chewed over this question. All over town. The results were published in this space more than a month ago.

I did not try every establishment's chicken. But I put a pretty big bite in what was out there - crunchy thighs slicked with spiced honey at Resurrection Ale House, served with great German potato salad. West Side Gravy's OK version in Collingswood. Jay Henson's classic bird at Silk City Diner. Jones', which riffs off KFC. At Ms. Tootsie's, the soul foodery on South, I had a notably crisp, abidingly juicy bird; it was my hands-down blue-ribbon nominee.

Ahem, I'd like to amend my remarks. Not retract them, exactly. But since then, two new chicks have landed on the block. And Lord have mercy, they're messing big-time with the pecking order.

The first of these is the Korean fried chicken that chef Anne Coll at Meritage has elevated from her staff meal to a Thursday-night-only special - $25 for a six-piece serving for two, with a 32-ounce can of Sapporo tossed in. Coll, who toiled for years in Susanna Foo's kitchen, remembers her own fried-chicken days fondly - the family heading out to a Lancaster County Mennonite, all-you-can-eat Monday-night chicken feed. The Korean accent, of course, is of later vintage.

She brines the pieces for 24 hours in a salt, sugar, ginger, and star anise solution, then marinates them in ginger, garlic, and Spanish onion puree. Coats them, and fries them once, then gives them a second, higher-heat fry, and a brush with a traditional Korean sauce of fermented chili paste, ketchup, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, and scallions. The result? An extremely moist, mildly spicy bird; not as explodingly crisp as Cafe Soho's magical wings in North Philadelphia's Koreatown, but worthy of honorable mention in the city's bulging fried chicken basket.

But I've found my new favorite at brand-new Adsum, chef Matt Levin's homey "refined neighborhood bistro," arising like a vision at Fifth and Bainbridge.