What to Have for Lunch: Fried Chicken Po'boy from Little Skillet

John Birdsall

Fried chicken po'boy ($9).

​Monday, June 7, 2010

OsakaSteve/Flickr

​Ever since opening manager Christian Cisclé split Little Skillet February, the cooking at Farmer Brown's takeaway satellite has seemed to move closer to the Tenderloin mother ship. When it opened a little more than a year ago, Little Skillet racked a thick stack of good press, including Matthew Stafford's July 2009 SF Weekly review. But after the changes of the past four months, is Little Skillet still good? Judging from a recent fried chicken po'boy ― a frequent special that appears destined for a slot on the regular menu ― the Skillet has gotten better in some ways, and slipped in others. The boneless fingers fried fingers in the po'boy were craggy with crunchy coating, with a mustard-seed flecked slaw that tasted like it'd been poached from grandma's root cellar, while the accompanying potato chips ― always the fall-down detail of the old Skillet ― were thinner and crisper than ever. But the Panorma roll? Hoagie-shop disappointing. Shriveled, bland, and bready, it was nowhere near as plush as the Acme torpedoes of Skillet po'boys past. Oh well.

Little Skillet 330 Ritch (at Townsend), 777-2777.