Eat Athens: This Watkinsville sports bar serves awesome chicken with a Classic City vibe

Whenever another corporate-owned store or chain restaurant comes to Athens, the sentiment from longtime residents and townies is that the area is slowly losing its character, and finding places that still have the time-honored vibe has become increasingly elusive.

As odd as it might be to say, there's at least one instance where traveling just outside of the city limits will land you right where you originally wanted to be. Located at 1290 Greensboro Hwy. in Watkinsville, Classic City Eats is dressed in red and black, full of Bulldogs décor, and also happens to have amazing chicken.

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To understand how Classic City Eats happened, we have to backtrack to 1120 Baxter St., where Champy's World Famous Fried Chicken operated from 2015 to 2020. Known around Athens as having the best chicken in town, Champy's was a locally-owned franchise, and the owners opened Classic City Eats in Watkinsville in 2020 as a move toward complete independence.

With much more space than before, Classic City Eats has a relatively gigantic open floor plan with a multitude of booths and tables, a full bar with plenty of seating, an old-school arcade complete with Skee-Ball, and several TVs blaring the big game. A host guides guests to their table, hands out menus, takes drink orders and brings out the food. If not for the flat screens, this could be College Avenue circa 1998.

Fittingly, Classic City Eats has a huge menu with options to suit just about every taste. If it's Southern food you're interested in, they've got loads of fried stuff from okra and hush puppies to wings and catfish. Feeling more like pizza? The entire reverse side of the Classic City Eats menu has sports-themed pies and calzones. But to get the full experience, The Banner-Herald strongly suggests that you consider the chicken.

From sandwiches and salads to tenders and half chicken plate, Classic City Eats offers its bird in a variety of ways, so when the Banner-Herald paid a visit, we ordered the hot chicken sliders. Unlike Nashville-style hot chicken, where the meat is marinated in spices, Classic City's version is fried first and then seasoned with what appeared to be the same dust as what is on their fries. The chicken is delicious and perfect, but you're better off having it tossed in one of the restaurant's wing sauces.

For hours of operation, menu details and online ordering, visit classiccityeats.com.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Eat Athens: Classic City Eats has awesome chicken