West Egg Cafe Is Launching Oddbird, a Regular Fried Chicken Pop-Up

Westside Provisions District's West Egg Cafe is launching Oddbird, a "restaurant within a restaurant." The new concept begins serving Wednesday, April 15, and will focus on fried chicken served on biscuits, sandwiches, or waffles. Oddbird will take a cue from Nashville's dining tradition and serve its pickle-brined, cornmeal-breaded Springer Mountain Farms bird in regular, hot, and too hot varieties.

"This is a restaurant that we actually considered opening somewhere else," West Egg co-owner Jennifer Johnson said in a prepared statement. "Instead of waiting to find the right location and then build out a restaurant, we decided it would be a great opportunity for our team here to learn the process of opening a restaurant from start to finish: budgeting, menu development and pricing, service model, branding, and logistics. We already have a great location, a great facility, and a great staff, so we want to build on those strengths and let everybody have some fun with it."

For dessert, West Egg pastry chef Rachel Regnier will offer six-inch whole pies, with options such as sorghum-pecan pie with brown butter cream, chocolate pudding pie with bourbon cream, and lemon pie with toasted meringue. The beverage menu will include bottled cocktails and a variety of craft beers, focusing on local options.

"We have always changed over our dinner menu seasonally, so this time we thought ‘why not do a complete restaurant change?'" co-owner Shelley Sweet said. "Maybe we run it only through the end of summer and change back, maybe it finds a permanent home somewhere else, maybe we just continue it here. We don't have a long term plan for it, but just want to have something new and fun for our staff and our guests."

Oddbird will take over the West Egg space Wednesday through Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Check out the menu below.