Little Skillet

If you're walking down some alley, there're certain things you're well advised to be ready for, like hushed solicitations from drug dealers, and precisely choreographed gang violence. And now, fried chicken and waffles, at Little Skillet

Operating outta 330 Ritch's (til' now) underused kitchen, and run by the dudes that opened Farmer Brown, Skillet's a miniscule, alley-bound to-go window that appears like it might sell cold coffee, when in fact it does sell crazy-good soul food, including some of SF proper's only fowl n' 'fles. The tender, flaky, spiced-up chicken comes with fluffy angel biscuits and optional sides o' coleslaw/potato salad/etc, or better yet, flanked by a couple of made-from-scratch buttermilk waffles dusted in powdered sugar and drowned in house maple syrup, all w/ optional sausage or mushroom/herb gravy -- go for the sausage unless you want to instantaneously like the Grateful Dead. There's also po'boys w/ your choice of pulled pork shoulder w/ homemade BBQ sauce, Creole shrimp, or roasted veggies; light, buttery angel biscuits w/ veggie gravy; and a few baked sweets like mini pecan pies and red velvet cupcakes -- significantly less Dennis Hoppery than blue velvet cupcakes

For now, Skillet's open from 11am-2pm, but next week'll ramp up to potentially deadly 8am-8pm service. Skillet also plans to offer a limited latenight menu to 330 Ritch club-goers -- so hopefully they're ready for people who've wandered into another alley, had their fill of powdered sugar, and subsequently lost their appetites.