Blue Ribbon SoHo & Park Slope

The Blue Ribbon family of restaurants is everywhere.  The restaurant's owners run an impressive array of eight New York eating and drinking spots, with a planned cafe located in Williamburg's Brooklyn Bowl Bowling alley scheduled to open this spring.  Although the namesake belongs to a wide variety of stores, including bakeries, sushi houses, bars, and restaurants, I will be talking about the companies main stays, its Brasseries (fancy French word for small restaurant).  The SoHo location is 97 Sullivan st, and the Park Slope location is 280 5th ave.  I have only ever been to the Brooklyn version, but the menus are nearly identical, with slightly more offerings at the Brooklyn spot.  Despite the use of the word Brasserie implying that this is a small restaurant, Blue ribbon has no comfy small operation feel.  The place is nicely decorated with comfortable chairs and a wood paneled bar.  Overall the look of the place says basically "Im a expensive restaurant," and this pretty accurately reflects the new trendiness of Park Slope's 5th ave, as well as the fact that this is an expensive restaurant.  

But enough about that what about the food.  For your first time here you would be a fool to order anything but the fried chicken.  You might be thinking "I'm at a classy joint i'm gonna order foie gras, or some other dish I will pretend to like" but do yourself a favor and go with the chicken.  The chicken is lightly coated with not only bread but matzo meal adding a perfect crunch to the skin.  The chicken itself is spiced lightly and cooked perfectly.  Despite the crunchy outside, out of the three times i've ordered this chicken the inside has never been dry, but retained its moistness.  Chicken portions are generous, and the whole thing is served with greens and potatoes, and honey on the side for dipping.  The rest of Blue Ribbons menu is pretty good, although nothing is quite as spectacular as the chicken, and its all priced like it should be.