It’s a drizzly Saturday morning in Summerhill, and Will Silbernagel is standing under a tent, frying chicken thighs. Under the canopy is a makeshift kitchen where Silbernagel — in a tan cap, mask and vinyl gloves — puts together a simple menu of chicken sandwiches and nuggets.
Inside the building, Greg Best, a legendary Atlanta mixologist and Silbernagel’s business partner, is calling out orders and bagging food. This is my first experience at How Crispy Express, a pop-up camping out at its future home. I’m not just waiting on fried-chicken sandwiches; I’m watching a fledging restaurant take flight.
Silbernagel — a versatile chef with an eclectic resume that encompasses fine dining and a recent stint at Shake Shack — pitched his How Crispy idea to Best a little over three years ago. In late 2019, they staged their first pop-up at Halfway Crooks Beer, with plans to open a quick-serve chicken shack across the street in May of 2020. “Then COVID hit, and our investors ran for the hills,” Silbernagel said.
Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
As the pandemic unfolded, the pop-up format evolved. Silbernagel moved his makeshift kitchen to the second floor of Halfway Crooks. Using a rope and a plastic bucket, orders were lowered through a window to the waiting crowd. “It was wildly popular, and people loved it, and it was totally like a play on social distancing,” he said. (Also, buckets of chicken — get it?)
The pop-up has been so successful that the project has regained its footing, and its funding. The owners now hope to open their space by July or August.
Until then, customers have two hours on Saturday mornings to try Silbernagel’s breakfast sandwich with whipped honey butter; original Classic Crispy with lettuce, bread-and-butter pickles and herb-flecked mayo; and six-packs of nuggets with honey mustard. One breakfast sandwich comes on a French-toast-dipped bun. A lemon pepper wet and an Indian tikka-style treatment also have made guest appearances.
Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
Silbernagel, 39, grew up in Jonesboro, earned an accounting degree at Georgia State University and attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Tucker. As a kid, he loved cooking with his mother, a native of Cali, Colombia. He’s worked in restaurants since he was 14. In culinary school, he noticed his peers wanted to cook fancy plated dishes, so he gravitated toward desserts and pastries.
While working at Bookhouse Pub, he and a friend ran Bookie Macarons, a weekend pop-up that had a devoted following. Best, who created the cocktail program at Holeman & Finch Public House, and is now a partner at Ticonderga Club, was a fan of Silbernagel’s macarons.
Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
Silbernagel originally envisioned How Crispy as a celebration of fried-chicken recipes from around the world. He eventually honed in on the sandwich, which is ideal for the kind of small, quick-serve restaurant that How Crispy will be. The 750-square-foot space will have a patio of the same size, and a menu of chicken sandwiches, sides and drinks in cans (including wine and beer). Despite Best’s formidable skills as a mixologist, there won’t be cocktails.
Silbernagel said that, in coming up with the sort of fried chicken sandwich he likes to eat, Nashville hot chicken was out, because it’s too spicy. “I wanted to have a chicken sandwich that was different from a lot of stuff in town,” he said. The thighs are marinated with herbs, spices, lemon juice and buttermilk, and are twice-fried, for extra crunch.
Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
After milling around the pop-up for a few minutes, I ambled back to Silbernagel’s kitchen-in-a-tent, just in time to see him with a tray of impeccably fried and crisped bird. It took considerable will power not to chomp into a sandwich the minute Best brought it out.
Back home, I made quick work of the classic, and now I believe I understand the How Crispy mystique. Silbernagel has created a destination sandwich that is otherworldly, and deeply satisfying.
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Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
HOW CRISPY EXPRESS
Menu: fried chicken sandwiches, nuggets
Alcohol: no
What I ordered: Early Bird, two Early Bird Deluxxes, two Nuggies, two Classics, side of berry jam. I loved the food, and the details (wet wipes; little wooden spreaders for the honey butter; the reward card for free nuggets with the purchase of seven sandwiches).
Service options: takeout only; order online via Instagram for pickup
Outdoor dining: yes, with limited seating
Mask policy: yes, for employees and patrons picking up
Address, phone: 71-B Georgia Ave., Atlanta; no phone
Hours: 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays
Website: instagram.com/howcrispy
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