Fork & Hammer

Vince Giancarlo> Creation comes from chaos.

Jamie Brown> The team came up with this idea to do an event called Fried Chicken Around the World. Vince> A dinner like this provides every challenge you can think of.

I need karaage real bad.

Jamie> We are seeing a gigantic storm coming in.

Jeff Tonidandel> I hate water!

Jamie> His car has broken down.

Vince> I don't know if anything's going properly right now.

Jamie> That's not too complicated for you to do?

Vince> Oh, it's super complicated.

We're the only fools in the entire globe that would do something this ludicrous.

Moriah Glenn> Hands, please, times two.

Vince> We all know fried chicken like the back of our hand, right?

You're going to realize you don't know anything about fried chicken.

(music fades) >> Major funding for Fork and Hammer is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like Fork and Hammer .

>> This series is made possible by Trust20.

Trust20 is a nationally accredited food safety training provider offering online training, certifications, and resources for all areas of the food service industry Learn more at Trust20.co.

>> Charlotte, from the refined to the unexpected, every bite, a memory in the making.

There's much more at Charlottesgotalot.com >> Fork and Hammer is brought to you by Biltmore Estate Winery .

(slow melodic music) Vince> Perfection is impossible to achieve, but if you pursue perfection, you're always going to achieve excellence.

I applied that to Haberdish .

Vince> Haberdish is a bastion of fried chicken.

Jamie> It is really well done.

It's got an eight hour brine.

We take a lot of time with the dredge.

It's well sourced chicken.

(sizzling) Jamie> I think one of the things that's so special about Haberdish , is that it really has a high brow, low brow feel.

Vince> You can come have fried chicken, but you don't have to sacrifice this other amazing food with it.

(indiscernible conversations) The most satisfying thing about Haberdish is that literally everything is made from scratch, down to the tater tots, which is wild to say, but like, yes, we make tater tots on a daily basis.

It's a three day process.

So roasting, cooling, blending, pushing.

You know, like that's the process.

Most people would be like, well, yeah, it's easy enough to just buy a bag of tater tots and put them in a fryer.

You know, well, we took it to another level and we do that with everything.

Jamie> We serve fried chicken with these beautiful apothecary style cocktails.

Vince> You know, we had this thing they call the honeymoon period in the restaurant industry, where you can ride this wave of just like crazy sales.

Colleen Hughes> Haberdish was busy all of the time, just brain breakingly busy.

Vince> A lot of times that only last three months or so.

I think in Haberdish's case, they were just busting at the seams.

I would say for a good 2 to 3 years.

(upbeat music) Michele Lemere> In the late 1800s, the mill industry had really picked up in Charlotte.

Joe Kuhlmann> A lot of textile mills and so forth was really what this neighborhood was known for back then.

The people that worked in those mills lived in the neighborhood.

They lived in the mill houses that are still around.

You had your drug store, which is where Cabo is, and Boudreaux's used to be a bank.

And this used to be like a management house for the mills.

(mellow music) Jamie Brown> Haberdish is located in the former general store of the North Charlotte neighborhood, which is now known as NoDa.

Cathy Tuman> We're north of Uptown Charlotte by three miles and then North Davidson takes you straight through Uptown.

(music ends) Michele Lemere> By 1975, when our last mill closed, the city pretty much forgot about North Charlotte.

Anyone that could moved out and moved on.

It became a high crime area.

It was not a place you wanted to be.

(bright music) Cathy> Now, that has all changed How I describe NoDa now it's hipster, a blend of cultures, of styles, of beliefs.

It's variety.

Joe> It's been so great to kind of see them blossom, grow.

They were working, you know, super hard and super diligent.

They had this master plan, I think, from the start.

Jamie> Both of us were drawn towards that kind of feeling so that we could create something that felt very independent, very unique and really kind of Nestle in and become a part of the community.

Paul Sires> They came in and brought a whole nother tier level of restauranteurism. (indiscernible conversations) Jamie> In order to create a restaurant, there's so much money that goes out the door that I would love to use that toward the people here in this community who are making things.

Paul> The inclusion of my artwork in the building allowed me to do some work.

that was different than what I normally do.

The ones that are in front of the restaurant, they're a wooden interior, and then it's covered with roof tiles that are made out of tin.

And then I did some tile for their exterior area, which was really a throwback to Mexican cement tiles, which has always been fascinating to me.

(light music) (rattling) Vince> Oh, Jen.

Jen is, Jen is my best friend.

Jen is, the love of my life.

She's the calm to my fury.

Jen Hill> The intensity of his job.

You know, it's 10, 12 hour days, and it's a lot of unexpected things being thrown at him and left to right.

Vince> Can we have two more wings still?

Putting out fires.

Jen> Correct?

Figuratively and literally.

Vince> I'll have a bad day at work and come home, and I'll be on a ledge and she'll talk me off of it.

I'm OCD.

Between her creative space and mine, it's just like, I mean, it gives me anxiety just standing in here, to be honest.

That's why I don't even look, that way.

Jen> And I zen out in chaos.

This is my vibe.

(music fades) Vince> We can't all live, like, super rigid all the time.

You have to be able to release somewhere.

I've found the way to be able to release.

For me, best is to go and spend time with her at her art studio.

Experience how Jen creates adversely to how I create because we both create beautiful things, but it's created very differently.

(tools whirring) Jamie> First time, that we're seeing these tables in here.

What I wanted to see if we could do was to start looking at what the tabletops are going to look like, and how we want to set it and everything.

So I brought a few things for us.

The general idea is that we would have these items at the table.

Jeff Tonidandel> Okay.

Jamie> I think the challenge with this having the dinner plate here is that our servers are going to have to come over, remove this plate and then bring an appetizer plate.

<Yes> So we could start with this, but it's probably too small.

Jeff> Too small.

If you get bread, then you get the bread plate.

Jamie> So do you think we mise en place or set up the table with the bread plate, if people order, say, the Hawaiian rolls?

Jeff> I mean, we could have this on here, but some of the tables are small.

Jamie> So if we started with this, do you feel like this is going to be big enough, if somebody orders several items from the raw bar, they order the Fundido, for instance, Jeff> Size wise, Size wise, this is awesome.

I love it.

Are you going to be okay that it doesn't have the color because it is our least colorful plate?

Jamie> I know, I love this texture though, and having the lines with this.

Jeff> It looks very classy.

Jamie> And I love how these stripes are playing really nicely with this table and also with the wallpaper, as well, having that really thin line.

We'll work on the fold.

Having a pocket of some kind just helps the service team be able to, Jeff> -bring them out.

Jamie> grab it and go and it's all in one pocket.

Jeff> We did a good job with the measurements here, like all of this.

Jamie> I want to make sure the plate falls across this line, which sounds silly, but if we can keep that preciseness across the whole tabletop, that would be great.

Now, so this is the last thing is figuring out- Jeff> -the eating tongs.

Jamie> I don't know if this should be because it's more of a silverware item.

Does it?

Should it sit down here with the fork?

Is that weird?

I want people to know that it's actually their utensil.

We could potentially set it across here, but the plate is so beautiful.

Jeff> It gives it.

I mean, it makes it a huge focal point.

Jamie> I don't know if this like, messes with the integrity of it.

Jeff> I don't know where to put it.

It's weird.

Jamie> That's weird.

<And> Also weird.

Jeff> You have a bigger fold here, so maybe it fits and tucks in, but... Jamie> That feels very like- Jeff> That feels very large.

Jamie> Maybe it's something as simple as we do, just put it right up here with that.

Jeff> We're going to have to see how they're being used.

They're so versatile that you can stab food with it.

You can grab food.

I think you're going to get a lot of people serving themselves.

Jamie> With those, as opposed to eating with them.

<Yes.> But I think that's a service point.

Like our servers just can say, hey, you guys are all set up here.

These are the eating tongs when your appetizers come.

<Yeah.> This is, we...think you can just use it like a utensil.

Jeff> I think we're good.

So we got to work on the fold, and we need to figure out the eating tongs.

But I'm good with this Jamie> That goes... Jeff> either way.

That's... I don't like that.

I like... the plate's too pretty.

Jamie> Okay.

(melodic music) Vince> I think when the restaurant came back down to earth, that's when the real work starts.

You've got to hone in those cost of goods to try and make sure that we're profitable.

(indiscernible conversations) In a nutshell, that is where the work started for me, is refining the processes and making them makes sense.

Figure out how, now at about 70 percent of the sales we're used to, you can maintain profitability in this restaurant, all the while trying to maintain a high quality of food.

And not even that.

Because, Jeff's biggest thing, when I started was our food is getting dull.

So we need to uptick the food while reeling in the food costs.

That's, that's a little daunting, but you know, I'm here for it.

(music fades) Jeff> When you're cooking fried chicken every day, it can get a little monotonous.

So the crew wanted to have fun with it, wanted to do some different types of fried chicken.

Vince> How do we put six courses of fried chicken together and not, like, just make people feel terrible?

Jamie> The team came up with this idea to do an event called "Fried Chicken Around The World".

Vince> We all know fried chicken like the back of our hand, right?

Today we're going to kind of flip that on its head.

So yeah.

What do you know about this dinner, huh?

Savannah> I don't know anything about this dinner, actually.

Are you even curious about what Alex is throwing in the fryer right now?

Vince> Our first dish is going to be out of Brazil, by way of Portugal.

The Portuguese developed the dish.

The Brazilians are serving it more than anyone at the moment.

It's called Coxinha.

Co-Co-Co-shin-ha.

Coxinha?

Okay.

Coxinha is how you pronounce it.

C-O-X-H-I-N-A (indiscernible comment) Oh, so Siri was right.

That's, we're going with what Siri says?

Okay.

It's a croquette.

That is a filling wrapped in a dough and flash fried.

Jeff> Tasting for an event like, "Fried Chicken Around the World."

It's really difficult because the details they have to nail, especially if they're doing things from other cultures.

Vince> Cream cheese, poached chicken, chive, scallion, shallot, white wine all in the middle of this little sucker.

Okay, so the shape of the croquette is meant to resemble that of a drumstick.

And that's how we kick off the fried chicken dinner.

Heather Hamilton> We did create five cocktails to pair with our, five courses.

So for our first course cocktail that will be paired with the Coxinha.

We have carra cachaca fruit cup.

We are using cachaca, which is the, basically the national Brazilian liqueur.

It's very similar to rum, but a little bit funkier.

Vince> Stop number two on our tour of fried chicken is Japan.

It's a long flight, so strap in, be ready.

And in Japan they really like to use chicken thighs for just about everything, which I can appreciate because I'm a huge fan of dark meat.

These are karaage steamed buns.

Karaage is a very traditional Japanese way of frying chicken, where for at least two hours, if not overnight, you're marinating in sake, soy, and mirin.

You know, you hear the term Holy Trinity, You know, in a lot of different cuisines.

Sake, soy, and mirin are in everything and are critical to producing that food.

Jamie> So the steamed buns themselves, making that in-house, that's not too complicated for you to do?

Vince> Oh, it's super complicated, but it's fun.

(laughs) Jamie> The cocktail that we're pairing with this one is- the midori.

Vince> The Midori, right?

Heather> So all of everything in this cocktail is very representative of Japan.

Vince> Wow, look at the color.

A little fun.

Heather> So this cocktail does have the Japanese melon liqueur.

And then we also have Pierre Ferrand Yuzu liquor.

Yuzu being a Japanese citrus.

This is a very rare spirit that we get to have here at Haberdish .

A kitten whisper of Japanese whiskey.

So if someone has an aversion to whiskey, it's just a little bit.

(resonating music) Vince> Third course, we're going to blow up everybody's palate with some strongly flavored Korean fried chicken, cooked twice.

The first time is a low, slow steam.

The second time is a very fast fry.

So that outside gets super, super crispy and fluffy and different than any other textured fried chicken you've probably ever had.

Jacob Hujar> It's a very traditional sauce on it, made with some ancho chilies, Korean chili flakes, fish sauce, and aromatics, housemade kimchi and some pickled daikon.

Vince> The kimchi is the spiciest bite of the dish and of the night.

So if somebody is like, I would like my taste buds, I don't want to destroy them, stay away from the kimchi.

Heather> All right.

And then for our third course, this is basically a Negroni style cocktail.

I use the Saint George Terroir Gin coming out of California.

So West Coast, the Campari is infused with toasted cinnamon and grapefruit.

And then we have pickled blackberries as our garnish.

Vince> And then we'll cleanse the palate with your surprise, which I don't know if you've seen.

Have you seen the ticket yet?

Savannah> I haven't.

Vince> It says layover.

>> Layover... Vince> I love it.

I love it.

I love it.

This is a lychee, yuzu honey, sea salt popsicle, meant to be a palate cleanser.

You have to know to be there to get the popsicle and bring it to the table.

Or they will melt.

They are meant to relieve your palate of what you just experienced with the Korean fried chicken, and get it ready for another flavor bomb.

We move on to our mashup of Middle Eastern and Thailand, which is the final savory course.

The Shawarma meets Hat Yai.

Have you seen the bright- ?

Savannah> Oh, I haven't seen the bright blue rice.

Vince> It's very blue.

Jeff> Blue rice, everybody.

Jamie> I love that.

I love the blue rice.

>> The chicken itself is just marinated in shawarma spice.

And then it's also dressed in a shawarma breading on there.

The curry is a traditional Yemenite Hawaij curry.

That goes back to the Ottoman Empire days.

Instead of roti, it's lavash.

It's another unleavened bread.

(music ends) Vince> You know all about the dessert because you bailed us out in a pinch.

Jamie> Oh my gosh.

What on earth?

>> Wow.

Oh my God.

Vince> We're back in the United States with this because we're the only fools in the entire globe that would do something this ludicrous.

(laughing) Promise.

Foie gras ice cream.

It is coated in a corn flake crunch.

Savannah> It's corn flakes, honey, butter, salt, little bit of graham crackers.

Vince> Then blend it up to be the crust, that kind of makes it looks like, look like it's fried.

It does not spend any time in the fryer.

It's got to be like, we're trying to serve you the fanciest piece of fried chicken you've ever had.

And then when you crack into it, guess what?

Jamie> It's ice cream.

Vince> It's not chicken at all.

It's still the visual of a fried drumstick.

The bone sticking out is tempered white chocolate, and then the sauce on the side is made from new and old grapes, i.e.

Pinot noir and fresh grapes.

We're coming down to the wire now.

We're about to have 100 people in this restaurant, and I don't know if anything's going properly right now.

>> We are opening and expecting guests in about ten minutes.

Vince> A dinner like this provides every challenge you can think of.

Cortney> We're just a little nervous to be serving food we've never served before.

Vince> Uh, what we're doing behind you is probably what we're least comfortable with.

And it's also ice cream, so it's melting as we talk.

But that's why we're in the cooler.

And that's why we've got three people working on one project.

Reporter> Tonight at 11, we are keeping you weather aware.

Throughout the evening we've gotten rain, hail, strong winds, tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings.

Jamie> Any time we have an event, we could be highly impacted by the weather.

We are seeing a gigantic storm coming in.

Sometimes it keeps people in.

Sometimes they'll cancel plans.

But for us, the show must go on.

Cortney> I did post that we'll take walk-ins.

Jamie> It's so tricky tonight because the weather is not in our favor for walk-ins.

Vince> Yes, alright, we got three all day?

Jamie> The kitchen is just about ready.

We're just minutes away from having guests come into our doors, and Vince gets a call that his car has broken down and his wife and son are stranded at their school.

Jamie> This is not the time for you to leave.

Vince> No, I know that's exactly what I said to her.

I was like, "Honey, dinner is about to start right now."

Jamie> He obviously can't leave them there, but we are about to start this event.

Vince> So wildly enough.

Jamie Brown suggested that she go pick up Jen.

Jamie> Over to the daycare center.

Vince> And then bring them, bring them back here.

They'll drop you off, and then they'll just take my car home.

Jamie> This is no time for a chef to be walking out of a kitchen, so I'm glad we'll be able to keep him here.

(light music) Customer> Well that looks amazing.

Customer #2> A Brazillian croquette.

Customer #3> Experimenting in the restaurant business is not easy and so happy they're doing it.

and we are getting to experience all of this.

Customer #4> It's got the perfect crisp on the outside, but softness on the inside that makes for great taste and feel in the mouth.

Moriah> I'll take two croquettes, four buns, one wing.

Chef #1> All right, all right.

Chef #2> Croquettes going to plate.

Jamie> All good.

You got your baby.

Vince> You get a giant hug for that.

Can you say thank you, Ms.

Jamie?

Hendrix> Thank you!

Michael Klinger> The "Fried Chicken Around the World" was probably the first event in the restaurant group that I really just come in, made a reservation, sat down, got served.

It was super weird to be a customer.

And normally I'm the one pouring and looking around and making sure everything's going right.

Even when I'm sitting down as a guest, it's hard to turn that off.

I think I saw Jeff at the bar.

I believe he was somewhat nervous trying to get the lighting right.

(indiscernible conversations) I like fried chicken.

I like doing champagne with that.

The bubbles wash, the crispiness of this fried chicken and the fats and the spice.

You know, rinses your palate out in between course.

Champagne was, was my favorite pairing with everything.

Moriah Glenn> Can you run to 22, please?

I'll grab someone for those Intermezzos.

Vince> I need karaage real bad.

Sorry.

Chef> It's okay.

Chef #2> Can we have two more wings down?

>> Yes.

Jeff> We have a really cool pergola at Haberdish that opens and closes.

It's indoor/outdoor, but it's only rated for a certain amount of rainfall per hour.

And a lot of times, our North Carolina weather definitely, Jamie>-surpasses that, rainfall.

Jeff> Yes, exactly.

>> It was definitely pouring in.

And that's when the buckets come out and the don't slip signs come out.

Jeff> The water is just coming down the glass everywhere in the pergola.

I hate water.

It gets in everything.

It breaks everything.

It ruins everything.

So we just had to deal with it.

Moriah> Can y'all make sure we get some hot towels on that table, as well.

Vince> All right.

We got three all day?

Server> Yes.

Three all day.

Moriah> Three.

Hands please.

Times two.

Customer #5> The blue rice has, has surprised me.

I haven't had blue rice before and it was a really nice touch.

(rain and wind sounds) Vince> "The Fried Chicken Around the World" dinner was extremely fun.

It was really fun.

When we were done and I was able to step away and look at the team, I was like, guys, we just, we just kicked that things butt.

Jamie> One of my favorite things about that event was talking to some of the guests who had come from like an hour away.

Customer #5> I planned my whole day around, coming down from Norfolk, Virginia to visit "Fried Chicken Around the World."

Jamie> They were looking for a special evening and we were able to provide that for them.

Allie> I think guests really enjoyed the night.

I think they were really happy to come out and experience something different at Haberdish .

It was a really creative spin on something that we hadn't really seen in Charlotte before.

So it was fun to be able to showcase what our chefs can do, what our mixologists can do.

It was just a really great vibe, even the weather outside made it kind of special because it was moody and dark and just cozy inside.

(music fades) Jamie> I think there really was no question who was going to be the executive chef at Leluia Hall .

Chris Rogienski, who has done an outstanding job at Supperland , will be moving over to Leluia Hall .

But that creates gaps and voids in our restaurant, where we're going to have to have people rise up into a new position.

(soothing music) Vince> Yeah.

So, I just found out that, I've been asked to take over the kitchen at Supperland .

I'd be lying if I said there's no nerves there at all.

What I'm most fearful of, maybe, is the magnitude of the project.

I'm always up for a challenge.

What I'm going to strive for out the gate is just to make really great food.

I'm excited.

It's going to be great.

(music fades) Vince> Oh, the, the qualms of making a dessert ice cream course with the smallest freezer that ever existed right here.

(Vince laughs) Oh boy.

>> Wait a minute.

You're putting 150 of those in there?

Vince> Oh there's, there's already about 60 in our other freezer, which belongs to the bar that I've essentially commandeered already from them.

But, yes, the rest of them are.

We're going to try and squeeze right in here, sir.

Major funding for Fork and Hammer is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina , the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio with the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations.

The ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like Fork and Hammer .

>> Thank you for watching Fork and Hammer This series was brought to you by Trust20 a nationally accredited food safety training provider offering accessible digital training at anytime and on all devices Learn more at Trust20.co >> Charlotte, a city shaped by storytellers, dreamers, and makers becomes a living canvas There's much more at Charlottesgotalot.com >> Fork and Hammer is brought to you by Biltmore Estate Winery .