It wasn’t so long ago that chef Elliot Bell swore off cooking fried chicken . During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his colleagues at Yountville’s three-Michelin-starred French Laundry were doing takeout for another Thomas Keller restaurant just down the street — Ad Hoc, which is known for its buttermilk fried chicken.
“I was frying thousands of pounds of chicken a day,” Bell recounted. “I became so sick of the smell and all of it.”
Fortunately, Bell reversed his stance on fried chicken. Today, it is a specialty at Charlie’s Napa Valley, the buzzy neighborhood spot that the former French Laundry executive sous chef opened in downtown St. Helena in October 2023. A $25 order comes with three pieces — it’s $48 for six — accompanied by hot sauce made in-house with aji dulce peppers…