Fried chicken & bacon butter: the 24hr biscuit emporium you've been waiting for

Years of scientific studies have proven there is absolutely no wrong time of day for a biscuit. Breakfast? Obviously. Dinnertime with a little fried chicken? Delightful. After seven cocktails? THERE ARE NO RULES! So it's only natural that a couple of Bouley vets would open a 24hr biscuit hub with a Southern farmhouse-meets-Nordic cafe vibe, and a "Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Drunk." motto that's coupled with enough innovative homemade jams and butters (French toast butter, anyone?) & next-level sandwiches to blow your biscuit-loving mind.

Empire Biscuit - Fig & Pig

Let's start with those biscuits. You have your choice of either country-style (with lard) or all-butter -- dilemmas! Either way they are flaky, moist, and a little crunchy on the edge, all while being substantial enough to hold up to a relentless onslaught of toppings, starting with The Fig and Pig, which takes their bacon and cracklin' butter and combines it with super-chunky fig jam. Again, bacon butter.

Empire Biscuit - Fried Chicken & Biscuits

Clearly you can't have a biscuit joint without fried chicken, and their version doesn't disappoint: an expertly fried hunk is cooked up with buttermilk, marjoram (apparently totally underrated), and orange juice/zest, and then topped with "sauce a l'orange" & pickled carrots. If you get only one biscuit (which is borderline impossible), get this one.

Empire Biscuit - Scotch Egg Sandwich

Why yes, that IS a Scotch egg biscuit holding a deep-fried & sausage-wrapped poached egg that's runny and delicious and held into place with cheddar and whole grain mustard. Once that "hallelujah" chorus stops playing in your head, we'll continue.

Empire Biscuit - Biscuits and gravy

Confounding your expectations for traditional biscuits and gravy (slathering them only made sense if you were using leftover or sub-par biscuits), EM's version turns it into somewhat of a sloppy joe situation that's nonetheless easier to manage on-the-go, by filling their biscuit buns with three types of gravy: sausage, smoke & spice, Tasso ham & coffee, and vegetarian.

Empire Biscuit - The Bright Crew

The Bright Crew (named for their neighbor) has got what they're calling oxtail and brown sugar jelly, but that jelly is basically a savory blend of meat and spices that's more of a glacé, and it's herbaceously supported by their fennel and arugula butter.

Empire Biscuit - Muffaleta

Hoping to show off the chef's New Orleans roots, they've also got bayou-influenced sandos like this "Man Sandwich" muffuletta loaded up with ham and olives.

Empire Biscuit - Creole Cream Cheese

Here's some pineapple and thyme jam with Creole cream cheese, which's different from other cream cheese because it's a bit more tangy, a little looser, and made in-house from buttermilk after a 24hr cooking process, allowing it to cut the sweetness of the jam like Edward Scissorhands. If Edward Scissorhands was cream cheese. Whatever, moving on.

Empire Biscuit - Pumpkin Pie Butter

They baked a giant pumpkin pie with all of their leftover biscuit dough to create the pumpkin pie butter filling for this seasonal bad boy.

Empire Biscuit - Empire Cola
All Photos: Andrew Zimmer

To wash that goodness down, they've got a killer homemade citrusy cola engineered for biscuit-gorging support. It's loaded with something like 18 ingredients, though nobody's been able to guess more than eight so far, probably because they keep wishfully guessing "more bacon butter".