West Egg Cafe Bids Farewell to Its Popular Oddbird Hot Chicken Pop-Up

Wednesday, February 12, marks the end of Oddbird, the monthly hot chicken pop-up at West Egg Cafe. Oddbird began as a weekly “restaurant within a restaurant” five years ago inside the Howell Mill Road breakfast establishment, before scaling back to every second Wednesday of the month.

“Oddbird has been a lot of fun for us these past five years. We started it when we had a crew of very young managers and chefs and wanted to give everyone the experience of developing a restaurant menu and concept from scratch,” West Egg partner Jen Johnson tells Eater Atlanta. “All those on that original development team — besides myself, Ben [Johnson], and Shelley [Sweet] — have moved on to other parts of our organization or to other pursuits.”

The Johnsons and Sweet own West Egg Cafe, in addition to the General Muir, Yalla, Fred’s Meat and Bread, TGM Bread, and Wood’s Chapel BBQ with chef Todd Ginsberg.

Johnson says that while Oddbird has a “loyal” and “hardcore” following, the pop-up requires a lot of work in terms of menu development each month and then staffing the evening meal. However, don’t count the pop-up’s popular hot chicken sandwich out yet. It could occasionally return as an off-menu special at West Egg.

Each month’s pop-up menu also includes a chicken and waffles special. A people’s choice winner will be added to the menu lineup for the final edition of Oddbird.

A post to Oddbird’s Facebook page asks people to vote on the very last chicken and waffles special from three favorites from past menus. “Over the next few days we’ll post each of the 3 finalists here for your consideration and comments — then we’ll post a poll in our [Facebook] Story for you to vote!”

The first favorite up for consideration is the mac and cheese-stuffed waffle topped with hot chicken and peach and bacon barbecue sauce from the June 2018 menu.

Oddbird

Oddbird

In addition to the spicy fried chicken sandwiches and waffles, Oddbird also serves pies such as chocolate pudding with bourbon cream and lemon with toasted meringue. Some of the pies can now be found on the menu at Wood’s Chapel BBQ in Summerhill.

While Oddbird is winding down, the Johnsons, Sweet, and Ginsberg are focused on opening their second location of the General Muir later this spring in Sandy Springs.

Oddbird, Wednesday, February 12, 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. First come, first served.

• West Egg Cafe Is Launching Oddbird, a Regular Fried Chicken Pop-Up [EATL]
• Oddbird Hatches Tonight Inside West Egg Cafe [EATL]
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