Over the past weekend I took a long trip to Greenville, North Carolina in pursuit of a chicken sandwich that I was told would blow me away with its flavor and leave me sweating with its heat. It’s safe to say I was left sweating and speechless.
“This restaurant was my idea, but I’m not made of money so I needed investors,” said Ryan Griffin, co-owner and originator of Nash. “Luckily, the people who invested I’ve been good friends with since high school.”
Nash has been open for around a year, being a restaurant that found its birth in the tail-end of the COVID pandemic. Griffin’s job before was in food service for a local school district in Greenville, North Carolina.
“Once the pandemic hit I was sort-of pushed out of my job. My wife was high-risk and being around thousands of kids every day wasn’t good for her health. It gave me a lot of time to plan out this place though, so I’m thankful for the pandemic in that sense,” Griffin said.
Atmosphere: Nash is a place where you want to sit down with a beer and a group of friends. From the moment you walk in it feels welcoming. It’s reminiscent of any good downtown bar across the United States, but beer isn’t the main attraction at Nash. You’ll find nice wooden tables and plenty of outside seating. My party and I all sat directly in front of the small performance stage they have set up for live music every day of the week.
Service: Service here is superb. With places that specialize in chicken, I always expect a slightly longer wait for my food. This restaurant is no different with a 10-15 minute wait once our order was in for food to arrive at the table. Luckily, we were entertained for the entirety of the wait with the live music being played right next to our table. The server was very nice to our table, and happily split our checks at the end of our lunch. Service felt efficient, and all our food was brought to our table piping hot.
Presentation: Nash has a very simple presentation for their food. We were given smooth and naturally finished wooden plates below our choice of food with a diner-style paper basket for our sides. That being said, my chicken sandwich was nicely presented cut diagonally in half with fresh pickle slices on each half. It felt very elegant for a sandwich, but not out of place for Nash’s general aesthetic.
Taste: I was told to go to Nash for their hot chicken sandwich. I followed that advice and received one of the best chicken sandwiches I’ve had in my culinary life. Nash uses a very interesting blend of peppers, but the largest flavors that come to your pallet are cayenne and habanero. The specific blend is something I didn’t try to pry from Griffin, but I can’t recommend getting anything other than their hottest hot sauce on any of your chicken at Nash.
I was stuck between taking sips of my water and eating my macaroni and cheese, but it was a blissful pain as I felt the tender, juicy chicken beneath a crisp crust just melt in my mouth with each bite. The hot sauce’s flavor didn’t disappoint because it was constantly building and evolving as you ate more or took a minute to breath and take in the aroma from the sauce.
Their macaroni and cheese was nothing to scoff at, either. It bridged the line between a stove-top and baked macaroni and cheese with a very creamy smooth texture to the sauce but a nice cheese crust put on top of each portion before sending it out for service.
Overall Impression: After traveling nearly 5 hours to just sit down and enjoy a meal at Nash, I can say that it was worth every minute of the drive. I have already made plans to go back and try the rest of their menu once I have the time and money, that’s just how good it was. It will always just be another chicken place to many, but for me it was an experience unique in the larger restaurant picture of hot chicken locations. The balance between flavor and heat was an idea I can tell was in the mind of Ryan Griffin when he imagined just what this restaurant could be. Griffin has opened a taqueria as of October 16 that I will be attending on my next visit to Greenville. Nash deserves nothing else but a firm Ferguson stamp of approval.
