As part of a project at work, I travel fairly regularly (at least 4 times a year) to Edwards Air Force Base, which involves at least 7 hours of flying, usually arrive late at night and leaving late in the morning (since the return flight is usually a red-eye).
So, we’ve come up with a tradition that every trip out there, we stop at Roscoe’s House of Chicken n’ Waffles, either as a way of restoring our spirits after a day of flying, or as a way of preparing ourselves for an upcoming red-eye flight (since it’s basically dinner and breakfast at the same time).
Roscoe’s itself is an institution. Unless you’ve either been to Harlem, or been to Roscoe’s before, most people haven’t run into the particular combination of fried chicken and waffles served at the same time. It’s an odd combination, and one that many people would write off as a novelty, but it actually works. Of course, it helps that Roscoe’s chicken is top notch, as are the waffles. They aren’t the absolute best chicken I’ve had (that’s currently Stroud’s in Kansas City), or the best waffles I’ve had (Highland Grill in St Paul, MN), but they both near the top of my list. And the fact that they can do both well is quite impressive.
Roscoe’s also has a good solid infusion of soul food on it’s menu, with solidly good grits, black-eyed peas, greens, sweet tea, and all sorts of other delicious-if-not-completely-healthy wonderful stuff.
This time, I went for the “Smothered Scoe Special”, a 1/4 chicken smothered in gravy and two waffles. This time, they served them on separate plates; last time it was on one plate, which gave rise to some odd flavor combinations as one dish blended into the next. I also had an “Eclipse”, a layered beverage of orange juice, red fruit punch, and lemonade, which was surprisingly good.
All in all, Roscoe’s is seriously one of the better eateries I’ve found for late night LA dining, and worth going to at least once. Our project team will be going back several more times…
Roscoe’s House of Chicken n’ Waffles
5006 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90019-4126
(among other LA locations)
We at there in L.A. on Pico. The food was delightful!