Michael Bauer loves his Frisco Fried...

Yes, there's a lot of Southern-style cooking going on around Third St. these days.  And, yes, they're all pretty darned good.  With Queen's Po'Boy on San Bruno Ave, the soon-to-be-opened Brown Sugar Kitchen, Frisco Fried, and Auntie April's, it doesn't seem necessary to go all the way up to Hard Knox Café in the Dogpatch anymore!

From SFGate's Inside Scoop:

Frisco Fried

Waiting for the chicken to be prepared at this 21-month old Bayview restaurant is pure joy. You know at the end of 20 minutes you’ll have juicy meat just out of the fryer. Every piece is cooked to order, so in the time between placing the order and digging into the four-piece dinner ($11.99) you can smell and anticipate what you’ll eat. It’s some of the best chicken I’ve had in San Francisco.

Each dinner comes with excellent corn bread and two sides; I’m partial to the macaroni and cheese and the greens that have just the right amount of vinegar to cut the delectable grease from the chicken.

Owned by Marcel Banks and his uncle, Gregory Banks, the restaurant also specializes in chicken and waffles ($7.99). I’m sure it’s good, but it’s a pairing I’ve never quite warmed to.

In season you can also get caramelized garlic butter crab, so I’ll look forward to trying that in a couple of weeks. Still, it will be hard to resist the chicken dinner, served in a dining room awash in Giants orange and other sports memorabilia.

5176 Third St. (at Thornton Avenue), S.F.; (415) 822-1517. friscofried.biz. Lunch and dinner daily.