Why we love BrassWELL’s fried chicken sandwich, served up inside Rockwell Beer Co.

When Gerard Craft’s BrassWELL opened inside Rockwell Beer Co. last December, menu decisions came easy: a few burgers, a brat, fries, and beignets…all the progeny of another Craft restaurant, Brasserie by Niche. Chef Joe Landis, Brasserie’s former sous-chef, recently introduced two new items: a grilled chicken breast from Double Star Farms (think Brasserie’s legendary chicken dish in sandwich form) and a beer-friendly Cajun-spiced, double-battered version topped with arugula and spicy aioli. But the secret sauce, as it were, is an outré 12-hour marinade of buttermilk, pickle juice, honey, and Crystal Hot Sauce. A bottom dress of Brasserie’s famous “dill but not dill-forward” pickles and a soft brioche Companion bun put a wrap on an item that Landis says has, at least temporarily, “taken the pressure off the burger flipper—me.”