About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Side Chick. 125 Founder’s Ave., Falls Church.Â
The team behind Michelin-starred Rooster & Owl first started perfecting its fried chicken for carryout when Covid shut down the 14th Street dining room in 2020. Five years later, the recipe is making a comeback. Owners Carey and Yuan Tang will open a takeout-only fried chicken concept dubbed Side Chick from their Falls Church sister restaurant, Ellie Bird, just in time for July 4th.
“We R&D-ed this fried chicken so many times hoping to have something that could withstand transit and still be crispy and flavorful and juicy,’ Carey says. “And I think we really like cracked the code.”
All the birds are brined in salt and sugar, marinated in buttermilk and sriracha, dredged, and double-fried. There are three spice levels: original (not spicy), spicy (finished in a dried habanero and arbol chili oil), and crazy hot (chili oil plus scorpion chile and Korean chili flakes). “It is quite hot, but it also tastes like chile,” says Carey of the spiciest version. Whole ($32.95) and half ($17.95) fried chickens are available, as is a sandwich with vinegar slaw and scallion aioli on a brioche bun.
Both Rooster & Owl and Ellie Bird are known for their cross-culture mashups, which come through in Side Chick’s sauces and sides. Among the six dippers: housemade ranch, Szechuan mustard, scallion aioli, kimchi honey, serrano hot sauce, and Thai green chili sauce.
A smashed cucumber salad is dressed in a soy-tahini vinaigrette with pickled fresno chilies and sesame seeds. Potato salad gets a kimchi kick, and mac and cheese is amped up with a white miso and garlic oil. There’s also mashed potatoes, scallion powder-dusted fries, and a mayo-free vinegar slaw with celery seeds, carrots, and red onion. One of Ellie Bird’s signature dishes, a braised oxtail pho and French onion soup mashup, is also available to-go.
Carey says customers of Ellie Bird frequently request the pints of the restaurant’s housemade ice cream, and now they will finally be available in summer flavors such as toasted marshmallow or pineapple/basil sorbet. Other takeout-friendly desserts include containers of Vietnamese-coffee tiramisu or cheesecake with strawberry/yuzu jam and almond/oat-crust crumbles.
Pre-orders are available now for pick-up or delivery beginning Friday, July 4. Side Chick will offer dinner takeout to start but expand to daytime hours down the line.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
