YARDBIRD DC Brunch & Thanksgiving Preview

Welcome back to the After Show. We are feasting in the Fox 5 kitchen this morning with Yardbird DC and here to demo their famous chicken and waffles and preview their Thanksgiving menu is Executive Chef Daniel Cahill. Thank you so much for sticking with us and, of course, visiting the Fox 5 kitchen again. For those who don't know, Yardbird, what kind of restaurant is Yardbird? I know you've got multiple locations, but the one in DC. We do. We all do just a classic Southern, pretty traditional Southern hospitality kind of fare. Yeah. So we do a lot of green tomatoes and obviously fried chicken. We have like a banana pudding on the on the menu. We do this giant chocolate cake that I think both of you have had before. A couple of things, pimento cheese and fried green tomatoes as well. So just roots in Southern hospitality. But it's fair to say you guys are known for the fried chicken, right? That's like the for sure. That's I think that was the basis. That's where everything started. But, you know, we do sell a lot of mac and cheese. We sell a lot of biscuits. And that tells me you probably get a lot of good families that come with kids and love that, right? We do. We have a lot of large crowds, for sure. Definitely family-friendly. There's something for, I think, everyone, for sure. The menu's pretty vast. I think it covers a lot of bases. It does. I know we're going to talk about the Thanksgiving menu, but I want to bring it back to the chicken, because you guys do something. You can't give away the secret recipe, but you guys do something incredible with it. So we keep it really moist, right? And the way we do that is by a 27-hour brine, which is basically just like a marinade, right? A brine is just like a salt solution. There is a little bit of sugar in there as well, and then heavily spiced. So we put that in that solution, just kind of like let it sit, do its thing for about 27 hours, a day and a half, things like that. And then we just batter it in a flour, seasoned flour, in a beef tallow, right? We do have a gluten-free option as well, which a lot of people really enjoy because it's difficult, I think, to get some gluten-free chicken. for sure, especially fried chicken, as well as a gluten-free waffle, right? We serve it with a cheddar waffle and then spiced watermelon. When you say a cheddar waffle, tell us about that. So we take like a basic waffle recipe, right? Inside it, there's a little bit of Swiss cheese, actually, which doesn't taste like Swiss. I know Swiss is kind of off-putting for some people, but you can't really tell it's Swiss cheese. It gives it like a little bit of a creaminess to it. Chives are in there as well. And then right before we bake the waffle, on the iron, we'll put shredded cheddar cheese on both sides so it makes it really crispy almost like a cheese it kind of feel to it um it's really really nice the waffle is great and you're serving the family one here you've got the like a watermelon yes that's an eight piece uh fried chicken served in one of our chicken baskets and then just a nice pile of marinated watermelon and then a couple pieces of waffle to share and it's marinated in like a lime juice and then you toss it with like a like a chili it's a chili salt Right. So I know tahini has been very popular. Yeah, go ahead. Tahini has been very popular and like tahini and lime seed on chips and seed on all kinds of things now. Right. Same same kind of direction. Right. Just really traditional chili lime. Just gives a little zest, a little zing. It sure does. You get the tanginess. Oh, man, that's the sweetness. The watermelon is great. I like the watermelon a lot. I think I have to steal that chili lime thing from you. That's good. So you mentioned earlier about the perk you get with your Thanksgiving meal. We do, yeah. So we offer a to-go package, right, for Thanksgiving, which is pretty much a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, mac and cheese, I'm sorry, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, things like that, a little bit of gravy. But during October, if you order, we're going to give you a brown butter bourbon pecan pie with your order, right? You can also order additional ones as well, obviously. So it will come like this in a box. you guys are free to cut it however you want when you get it at the house on top is a honey whipped cream and then almost like a gingerbread speculoos cookie crumble that is so good and then we'll just load it with bourbon caramel okay you have to tell me about this bourbon so i thought was just gonna decorate it like a little drizzle you were like drowning it i'm just gonna put it on top look at this i haven't heard of bourbon caramel let's talk about that totally traditional totally traditional caramel so we cook down sugar to a nice caramel color right and then add our cream to make our caramel and in that is like a reduction of bourbon so there's definitely like a boozy aspect to it if you have a lot of kids maybe get it on the side something like that okay you're you're forewarned there's some booze actually I'm gonna reach behind you grab the whipped cream so you can get this in the house on Thanksgiving Day you usually will come with a ice cream right pecan pumpkin it's a brown brown butter bourbon pecan but I'm sorry maybe I did brown brown butter he's been in the sauce a little too yeah bourbon caramel pumpkin pie, all right so it will come with ice cream if you'd like ice cream right, otherwise just this honey whipped cream topped with some of these speculoos cookies, so they have like a little bit of a crunch to them a little bit of a chew as well, not just like a gingersnap where it's all dry and kind of he's going back in with the bourbon sauce, you are heavy-handed, and then a little bit of caramel, yeah so the kids will have the bourbon sauce on the side and I'll leave it alone. It's good, though. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Oh, my goodness. If you avoid the sauce, I'm going to go on for it. I'm going to take the end piece, which has no bourbon sauce on it. It's not going to do anything to you. My goodness. It's got a bite. Oh, my God, that's good. That's really nice, yeah. I'll just eat the cookies. Pumpkin pie is always a favorite. Okay, that is super good. You do get the bourbon in there, but let me tell you, I am not upset. I'm not going to send it back, and you wouldn't either, trust me. You mentioned that with the Thanksgiving box that you might get, you get a turkey. Are you guys doing your turkey the same way? You're brining it as well? We do roast turkey. It is brined, yeah. Truthfully, I think the turkey is really great. You know, I know we're used to a lot of dry turkey, things like that. But setting it in that brine really just helps it stay moist. It really is a great turkey. So when you do that with a turkey, I mean, because turkey has to cook for a long time, a number of hours. Yeah, so we do so many turkeys. we have to break them down, we don't cook them whole, all right so we cook each section of the turkey the legs the the breast and the um thigh separately right so we'll cook all the breasts together uh cook them all to the same temperature so none of them are are dry the leg gets cooked through right it's um it's really a nice plate yeah it's i mean listen i i've tried a couple things on this uh the Yardbird menu beyond just the chicken i know i told you i love the deviled eggs um gosh you have like that um um it's like the mexican corn that's also really delicious the mac and cheese mac and cheese is great biscuits and apple butter really good biscuits i can't forget about and i said so you guys opened the one in DC it was around the pandemic i think is when i went right right after during i guess yeah and here's the thing so testament to how they opened during like what when everyone was locked in but look how far they've come testament to how good the food is there i'm telling you you go in you feel like you're in your grandma's kitchen from you know somewhere in the south and it's just amazing food through and through, how long have you been with Yardbird? Uh, since we opened so 2021, yeah, and what do you i mean in terms of, i guess it's one of those things if it ain't broke don't fix it, you guys keep the menu pretty much the same right or do you uh, it changes throughout, i know we will swap in some things obviously when there are seasonal items and things like that, we'll do some other stuff um we do offer like a to-go program through this online platform Goldbelly, so we do see a lot of biscuit orders coming through for the holidays to kind of supplement, I think If you can't make it or make it to somebody else's, you can always send a box of biscuits See a little bit more chicken orders for Christmas and things like that. But I think biscuits is a nice side dish to bring, right? So a lot of people will go for that option if you can't make it in And you guys do brunches as well? We do full brunches, yeah Saturday and Sunday we have a brunch program as well. We do a lot of shrimp and grits. right, how can you forget that? Yeah, deviled eggs go really great for brunch we do a black and salmon um some nice offerings, yeah for sure i'm telling you so going back and he said you can order if you order the uh the to-go menu, the the pie is there's a special this month right, so there's an expiration date on that just through october uh if you use the promo code free pie when you when you order your box i think there are two options this year for a box we have like a a slightly smaller set, which is like four to six people, and then a large one, which is like six to eight, or eight to 10, something like that. So either one, if you order one before November, you'll get a free pie as well. And does it come dressed like this, or? It will, it'll come in its own case. Oh my God. Its own little box. Listen, I'm telling you, but for the fact that I have to run extra miles on a treadmill, I would have devoured this thing already. It's so good. Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm seriously restraining myself from going in again, but everything about this is just deliciousness personified. I love everything about it. Yeah, you had a question? I was going to say, how much in advance do people have to order? Yes, that's a good question. I mean, you can start ordering now. We're going to take orders, I think, up until the week of, or maybe even a few days before Thanksgiving. Okay. And just curious, this is a full bird, so how many people would you say, like, this meal here? I mean, it's eight pieces. I know, even I eat it every day, but I could eat a breast and a thigh at least. So I would say three or four people. Okay. Yeah. Or one very hungry person. Yeah, I mean, if you want. Now, do you get the biscuits with that when you order? Which one? When you order the special, like the dinner? For the takeout program? You will get, like, depending on the size, you'll get an order of biscuits. You'll get a thing of apple butter and honey butter as well for the biscuits. Cranberry sauce and gravy. We do a biscuit cornbread stuffing. Oh, my God. Which is kind of different, right? So our cornbread's awesome. Everyone loves our cornbread. Are you hungry yet? Because if you are, you're a busy season. You got to go. This other table is calling you. I do love my desserts. Yes, we can see that. Making them really special and very tempting for everybody also. It's food that sticks to your bones, and you're going to need that because it's getting cold out there. Quickly. Especially this weekend, right? We got the sunshine, but not a lot of the heat that's coming from the sun. Exactly. So let's have a quick look at this weather forecast for you so you know what is going to be happening.