GETAWAYS • The Berkshires
My first Hy’s Fried experience was at an 18-person New Year’s Eve fried chicken-dinner-turned-dance-party. We didn’t rent out the restaurant; simply calling and asking to push six tables together did the trick. I like to think I’m a relatively considerate diner, but we were a lot. And yet the team at Hy’s didn’t seem to mind when we won all the bingo prizes (chicken magnets), shut down the bar, took over the DJ booth (I’m so sorry), and ate ice cream sandwiches on the dancefloor.
Hy’s Fried opened last August on a windy loop of Route 23 in South Egremont, MA, in what used to be the Old Egremont Club — a 1935 bar that hosted live bands for 40 years, but has been vacant since 2016. Hy’s breathed life into the retro space while preserving some of its mementos, like the big cursive signs borrowed from the music club of yesteryear. It also makes clear its own identity as a one-stop shop for evening fun with outrageously good fried chicken, sides, and contemporary cocktails.
During my second visit, a low-key family dinner, I was much more cognizant of what I was seeing and eating. The restaurant is cherry red from head to toe, from pixels of light reflected by a disco ball to metal chairs and tables, leather booths, and bathroom tile. The food arrives in unassuming red plastic baskets, martinis in chunky goblets. The chicken is crispy and doused in a sticky, sweet honey sambal — somehow reminiscent of the best parts of both Southern and Korean fried chicken. I could shout from the DJ booth (if they’d let me) about the potato salad — light on the mustard, heavy on the vinegar, mustard, red onion, and lemon.
Having enjoyed both extremes of the Hy’s experience, I’d say that the ideal lies somewhere in the middle. Go around 8, get the whole bucket, potato salad, collard greens, and a couple of Sunny Days (vodka, guava, grapefruit, campari, Prosecco), and make a whole night out of it. Maybe you’ll even leave with a pack of chicken magnets to boot. –Alice Gilbert
→ Hy's Fried (Egremont, MA) • 264 Hillsdale Rd • Tue-Sun 5-11p • Walk-ins only.