Favorite Dishes #88, The 21 Club’s Creamy Chicken Hash

It’s no wonder the Prohibition era would give birth to certain overindulgent suppers that are still with us today. Sopping up boozy pours is no less necessary now, at a time when spirited holidays like Negroni Week and National Bourbon Day draw trending hashtags, than when locating bootlegged hooch was a word-of-mouth affair. And while the Hot Brown, a turkey-and-bacon variation on Welsh rarebit, will always be associated with Louisville’s Brown Hotel, creamy chicken hash is the business of midtown’s 21 Club (21 West 52nd Street, 212-582-7200), where regulars continue to pony up for the toasted bounty of hefty poached chicken cubes on a bed of wild rice and spinach, sloshed in mornay sauce, and messily tucked under crusty gruyère cheese. Sure, it may never be the memorable part of a night at 21, but it’s lasted this long because it’s the only reason you can still remember your evening at all.

Fork in the Road is counting down to our Best of New York City issue in October. We’re combing the city every day, one dish at a time, to guide you to the most delicious food in NYC. These are our 100 Favorite Dishes for 2015, in no particular order, save for the top 10.

Here’s our countdown up to now:
#100: Laminated Blueberry Brioche at Dominique Ansel Kitchen
#99: Egg Shop’s Golden Bucket Fried Chicken
#98: Ramen Lab’s Torigara Shoyu
#97: Cannoli at Ferdinando’s
#96: Breakfast Sandwich at Dimes
#95: Banana Royal at Eddie’s Sweet Shop
#94: Fletcher’s Burnt Ends
#93: Almayass’s Mante
#92: Empellon Taqueria’s Fish Taco
#91: El Rey’s Sardine Tostada
#90: General Tso’s Pig’s Head at the Cannibal
#89: The Vegetarian at Meat Hook Sandwich Shop