For two days, owner Bob Brazell and head chef Alex Kristof tossed around different ideas for what to do with the restaurant space adjacent to Tamm Avenue Bar after Nomad announced its departure. They thought maybe a burger place would work, then moved on to some other concepts, but nothing seemed to stick. Then, it hit them.
“We both looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve just gotta do Byrd,’” recalls Kristof. “We already had a following. Why start a brand new concept when we had one in the waiting?”
Find the best food in St. Louis
Subscribe to the St. Louis Dining In and Dining Out newsletters to stay up-to-date on the local restaurant and culinary scene.
Now, just two months after that realization, Brazell and Kristof are poised to open Byrd & Barrel (1221 Tamm) on Friday, December 20. It’s been a long time coming for the brand, which was originally founded in 2015 and then put on hold in 2020. Since temporarily shutting its doors during the pandemic, Brazell and Kristof have been in search of a new home for their wildly popular chicken brand, coming close to reopening at different points only to see things never quite work out. With Nomad’s closure, all of the pieces finally felt like they had fallen into place.
“I have had Tamm for 11 years now, and I’ve really changed this building with the patio and artwork and everything,” says Brazell. “For me personally, it’s cool seeing both of them collide. I’ve seen this evolve over the past 11 years and saw how much Byrd grew in five years. Now, we get to mix them together.”
Byrd & Barrel will be open Wednesday through Monday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. for both dine-in and carryout. Here’s what to know before you go.
The Space
Byrd & Barrel occupies the storefront next door to Tamm Avenue Bar, at the intersection of Tamm and West Park in Dogtown. Although you can enter each business through its own exterior door, they are connected on the inside, allowing guests of Tamm to order from Byrd and vice-versa. A small dining room simply decorated in black-and-white vintage penny tile, vintage light fixtures, and a Tamm Avenue Bar mural separates the two spaces.
Byrd & Barrel’s dedicated space is outfitted with the whimsical touches that have defined the brand since it began in 2015. There’s an old-school hip-hop vibe to the place (the mural of ’90s and early aughts rappers in the bathroom is a particularly eye-catching homage); skateboards, lunchboxes decorated by local artists, and Wu-Tang Clan-inspired murals and branding adorn the space. The restaurant is counter-service-style, and guests can see into the small open kitchen when they place their orders.
“We kept running back and forth to our storage unit, where we had all this cool stuff that a lot of local artists made for us,” says Brazell. “The decorating came together easily; once we started putting things up, this all became real.”
The Menu
Brazell and Kristof have brought back almost the entire original Byrd & Barrel menu. Had they not, Brazell jokes, there would have been hell to pay. “Have you ever heard of getting death threats over chicken?” Brazell says with a laugh. “We weren’t that far off.”
The heart or Byrd’s menu is its nugz, boneless white and dark meat nuggets that are breaded, fried, and dusted in the restaurant’s signature Byrd seasoning. Brazell believes the seasoning is the key to the nugz’s popularity: The chicken is coated in the seasoning blend immediately after coming out of the fryer, so it adheres to the breading like a dry rub and perfumes the air as it steams. Nugz are finished with scallions and come with both buffalo and ranch for dipping.
In addition to nugz, Byrd has a handful of sandwiches, including the monster Down South (see lead image), which features a plump fried chicken thigh, country ham, and a mound of pimento cheese garnished with pickle, onion, and tabasco aioli, all tucked inside a buttery brioche bun. The restaurant’s signature sandwich, the Mother Clucker, will also be available at Byrd 2.0. This decidedly St. Louis sandwich consists of a boneless fried chicken thigh topped with Provel bechamel, caramelized onions, red pepper jelly, and Red Hot Riplets.
Other dishes include a hearty poutine, made with either chicken or mushroom gravy and topped with Provel and nugz pieces, a Caesar salad generously showered with shaved Parmesan, wings, and handmade tots.
Brazell and Kristof anticipate that their riff on Jack in the Box tacos will be one of the more popular dishes, especially with the bar crowd. Similar to the fast-food restaurant’s cult classic, the tacos are filled with beef, lettuce, and American cheese, then deep-fried.
“These recipes are tried and true,” says Brazell. “They’re what people have been asking for.”
The Backstory
Brazell first opened Byrd & Barrel in a former Jack in the Box on Jefferson Avenue near Cherokee Street in 2015 to immediate success. Known for its outstanding fried chicken and whimsical branding, the restaurant developed a cult following and expanded to include a spot inside the Enterprise Center.
In August 2020, Brazell decided to temporarily shutter Byrd because of pandemic-related stressors, always with the intent to reopen as soon as he could. While closed, Brazell decided that he wanted to reopen in a different space, and he began a search for a new building, which almost led him to a space on Hampton. It fell through, and the concept has remained in limbo ever since, popping up here and there while remaining a fixture in the hearts of its longtime fans. For Brazell, knowing that there is so much support for what he and his team does is what keeps him going, even when things have gotten tough, and he couldn’t be more thrilled to finally be bringing back something so beloved by the community.
“Because of everything else we have going on at the moment [Nick’s Pub, SoHa, the Tenderloin Room], I wasn’t sure right away if I could do this,” says Brazell. “But when word leaked out a little bit about us possibly reopening and the public response was so big, I thought, Alright, this is pretty cool. Anytime people show you so much appreciation for what you do, it means you are doing something right.”
