Harold's Chicken Shack #62 (Downtown)

The downtown location of Chicago's most iconic fried chicken institution. Harold Pierce founded the original in 1950 at 47th and Kenwood after moving to Chicago from the South in 1943. Now with 40+ locations across the South Side, Harold's is THE fried chicken of Chicago — order a half white, half dark with mild sauce and you're speaking the local language. The mild sauce is the thing: a sweet, tangy, slightly spicy concoction of ketchup, BBQ sauce, and hot sauce that you won't find anywhere else in America. Fries, white bread, coleslaw on the side. Harold's became a Black-owned institution partly because of redlining — big chains avoided Black neighborhoods, so Harold's filled the void and became a cultural anchor. This #62 location on Wabash brings South Side soul to the South Loop.