How Do DC's Buzzy New Chicken Joints Stack Up?

Chicken has moved from a cheap, polite restaurant trope to chef-designed dishes that command premium attention. In the early 2000s, chefs pursued roast chicken styles that home cooks could not easily replicate, using heritage birds, wood-fired ovens, and housemade butter rubs. More recently, chefs have taken a more casual approach, including Nashville hot-chicken sandwiches and takeout-focused chicken shops. Bumblebirds, opened by Carla Hall in a former Good Stuff Eatery space, offers a fast-casual fried chicken menu during a six-month test run, with items like honey-butter-soaked sandwiches, large tenders, and honey mustard. The menu also includes strawberry lemonade and pimiento cheese, plus elderflower juleps at night.

"These days, chefs are taking a more casual approach to chicken. Moon Rabbit's Kevin Tien slings Nashville hot-chicken sandwiches at Hot Lola's. Carey and Yuan Tang run the takeout-only Side Chick out of their hit Falls Church restaurant, Ellie Bird. Here's a look at two notable chef-driven newcomers, both on Capitol Hill."

"Now she's betting big on fried chicken again. Bumblebirds, a sunny, folksy fast-casual place in the former Good Stuff Eatery space, opened in March for a six-month test run. If it does well, it'll stay put, though Hall recently hinted it might close, which would be too bad. Because even if you're asking yourself whether DC really needs yet another place for a honey-butter-soaked fried-chicken sandwich, I'd say it's off to a good start."

"I appreciate that the strawberry lemonade tastes more like berries than simple syrup and that the massive chicken tenders come with a perfect honey mustard. A scoop of pimiento cheese could have been plucked from a Carolina kitchen (its accompanying slices of dried biscuit not so much). At night, there are elderflower juleps and b"

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