🥃 Libby's Southern Comfort

Libby’s sits at the corner of 8th and Washington in Covington, on the ground floor of a three-story brick building painted slate gray. An arched carriage bay in the middle of the facade rolls open to the sidewalk when the weather allows, and you can see the bourbon wall from the street. That wall matters, because Libby’s is a stop on Northern Kentucky’s B-Line, the bar and restaurant leg of the bourbon trail. The restaurant opened in 2019, named for the owners’ youngest daughter, and the logo on the sign is Libby standing next to Yuma, the family’s black lab. Owner Brad Wainscott grew up working in his father’s Northern Kentucky taverns, so Southern cooking and fried chicken run in the family. This was my second visit, and it holds up.

The Vibe

The bar is the first thing I noticed, and as a guy who started out building cabinets, I’d go back just to look at it. It’s a live-edge black walnut slab that runs most of the room, finished to a deep glow under schoolhouse glass pendants tied with burlap bows. Above it is a dark exposed-joist ceiling, and behind it are pipe shelves stacked with bourbon, a Four Roses crate holding the straws, and a brass double candlestick lamp at the end. The walnut carries past the bar too, to a bar-height table with a black epoxy river running through a cross-cut slab. Glass garage doors open up the front half of the room, so on a nice day you’re practically eating on the sidewalk. There are plenty of TVs for the game, the crowd skews families and locals, and there’s a covered patio out back with heaters that keep it comfortable when it’s cold.

Parking is easy, with several paid lots nearby, and on weekends there’s free parking in Libby’s shared lot. On a Saturday around 1 PM, we had a reservation and the party ahead of us didn’t, and they were seated without trouble. Take the minute and make one anyway.

The Food

Being on the B-Line, there’s no shortage of bourbon. The Cheerwine Bourbon Slush lives up to its reputation, and the Smoked Maple Old Fashioned is built on Michter’s Rye with maple syrup and smoked orange, served in a glass smoked with maple chips. It carries a nice smoked orange hint and runs a little sweet without going too far.

We started with the Triple Crown sampler: goetta hush puppies, fried green tomatoes, and deviled eggs. I don’t eat tomatoes, so I swapped mine for extra eggs, and my wife ate the tomatoes and called them awesome. The hush puppies are a Libby’s original, made with Glier’s goetta and served with remoulade, and the eggs come topped with pork belly lardons. Both are executed properly. The hush puppies have good consistency and a light exterior rather than the rock-hard crust and dry center most places serve. They were the standout on my first visit and landed as good rather than memorable on this one, but that’s the ceiling of a hush puppy, not a knock on the kitchen.

The Doc Holladay is the sandwich, and the crust on it is a good craggy, which is exactly what you want when hot honey needs something to cling to. The honey is nothing to be scared of, more honey than heat. The slaw and pickled onions blend in without any one flavor dominating. What stood out is the chicken itself. I’m not a breast meat guy, and they kept it juicy under a crust that heavy, to the point where it pulls apart like thigh meat. One practical tip: the honey pools under the bottom bun on the way out of the kitchen, so plan on some sticky fingers (or have a wet towel ready). The fries come out right, crisp edged with visible black pepper.

Then there’s the half chicken, which is the dish the place is known for. A 2019 piece in the Kenton Recorder put it in the running for the best fried chicken in town, and in 2022 Libby’s fed the Bengals during the Super Bowl run. It earns all of it. The crunch and the juiciness are both there, and it’s some of the best fried chicken in Northern Kentucky. The cole slaw alongside it is classic Southern. My wife had the mac and cheese and loved it, cheesy and full of flavor without going so far that your mouth sticks together.

The biscuit that comes with the chicken is tiny. Like comically tiny for what I expected. It has solid flavor, but they could stand to make them bigger.

If you have room, the honey pie eats like a cross between crème brûlée and cheesecake on a pecan pie crust.

The Bottom Line

The room is comfortable, the service is good, and the bar is worth a look on its own. But the rating comes down to the fried chicken. It’s some of the best around, and it’s the reason to point the car toward Covington rather than wait until you’re already there. Make the reservation, order the bird, and bring a container, because you probably aren’t finishing it.