Ready Set Get Excited

Source: Boston Globe, July 25, 2024
By: Kara Baskin
Photo Cred: Suzanne Kreiter via Globe Staff

Where to: ButterBird at Bond Square in Arsenal Yards.

Why: For fried chicken, at breakfast and beyond.

The backstory: Jason Santos, a gregarious chef with aqua hair and a media-friendly persona, is the Willy Wonka of Boston cooking. In an era of earnest chefdom, this is a man who does not take himself too seriously. His menus are cheeky; they have been ever since he burst onto the scene at the long-gone Gargoyle’s in Davis Square. Now he’s a busy restaurateur with spots in the Seaport and beyond. At Buttermilk & Bourbon in the Back Bay and Watertown, he offers soft-serve inside pretzel cones and glazed biscuits the size of hubcaps. At Citrus & Salt in the Seaport, there are strawberry shortcake tacos and Dole whip. ButterBird, his new fast-casual fried-chicken restaurant at Arsenal Yards, is more of the same.

Inside, there’s a portrait of a cartoonish chicken punctured by a fork, framed by a neon sign: “I’m fluent in fowl language.” And Santos is fluent in the language of indulgence: tater tots, cheesy sauces, fried treats. He even invites diners to submit their sandwich suggestions each month; he and his team will pick the best one and make it. No pretentiousness here.

This restaurant is around the corner from Buttermilk & Bourbon, a larger space with a sprawling New Orleans menu. Both blend well with the Arsenal Yards vibe, an outdoor mall where it’s possible to shop at Old Navy, see a movie, and sit down for conveyor belt sushi, all in the same block. (The only hard part is finding a parking space.)

The food: There is breakfast, lunch, and dinner, although at my noontime visit, there’s some confusion over whether lunch is ready yet. (Breakfast lasts until noon on weekdays and 1 p.m. on weekends.) Egg sandwiches, served on potato rolls, have names like the Rowdy Rooster, with fried green tomatoes and white pimento cheese sauce; Fowl Mouth, with black bean puree and chimichurri goat cheese; Click Bat, with griddled spam; and the Godfeather, smeared with black truffle mayonnaise. They start at $11. For a $6 upgrade, you can add fries or (craterous, deep-fried) tater tots and a drink. Sadly, when we do this, our fries do not arrive. But that’s OK: These sandwiches are big and filling. We really do not need more carbs.

See full Boston Globe article, here