Restaurant set to open:
Doughbird Pizza & Rotisserie, the first new project from Fox Restaurant Concepts since 2014, is ready to take flight. The restaurant launches Tuesday at Indian School Road and 44th Street in Phoenix.
Sam Fox’s newest restaurant is ready to take flight.
Doughbird Pizza & Rotisserie launches on Tuesday at Indian School Road and 44th Street in Phoenix.
The Republic got a first look at the menu, which features a curated cache of pizza, rotisserie main dishes, salads, sandwiches and sides. Keeping with Fox’s successful formula, the dishes are simple enough to please a crowd, yet the ingredients are complex enough to excite the epicurean sort.
Doughbird is the first new project from Fox Restaurant Concepts since Flower Child opened in 2014. It’s the 16th brand to join the Fox family, which includes Zinburger, Culinary Dropout, The Arrogant Butcher, The Henry and True Food Kitchen.
The restaurant will seat more than 200 inside a brand-new building at Arcadia Gateway. It joins Überrito Mexican Grill, which opened at the shopping center on March 23; and Creamistry, which debuted in December. Smashburger is coming soon.
Doughbird’s vibe, described by Fox as Northern California chic, is decidedly fresh and clean. Plenty of natural light shines through onto white paneled and tile walls. Diners sit under exposed wood beams and plants are used as decor. Chefs do their thing in full view inside an open kitchen and servers scurry to and fro wearing navy polos, jeans and aprons.
The man they call “Chef” is Chris Barch. Before being named executive chef at Doughbird, he held the top position at The Henry, one of Fox’s boutique brands (concepts with a single unit). Before that, he was executive chef for Aaron Chamberlin’s St. Francis restaurant in central Phoenix.
Barch contrasts Doughbird as a casual, family-friendly place to The Henry, at 44th Street and Camelback Road, as a
stylish spot for power lunches and date nights. But, he said, there’s “no less of a focus on the food” because of the laidback atmosphere.
Roasting 80 chickens at a time
One of Barch’s favorite dishes is the Heirloom Tomato and Quinoa Salad ($12). Leafy greens sit on a bed of cucumber feta yogurt and are topped with heirloom tomatoes, quinoa tabbouleh, shaved cauliflower, cucumber, pine nuts, feta cheese, zaatar and champagne vinaigrette. “It’s really bright,” he said. Even though thinking about the number of birds he has eaten while working on Doughbird makes him “uncomfortable,” the rotisserie chicken is Barch’s favorite thing on the menu.
He loves the simplicity of the chicken rub: a mix of salt, brown sugar, chile and garlic powder.
Whole chickens are roasted on spits inside two commercial-size vertical rotisseries. The kitchen can roast up to 80 whole chickens at a time.
Diners can order half or whole chickens for $17 or $24, respectively. The meal comes with choice of such sides as potato puree, asparagus with broccolini, macaroni and cheese and Carolina gold rice. You also get to pick from among nine sauces, including horseradish creme fraiche, chipotle barbecue, pineapple teriyaki and jalapeño pesto.
“I thought I would get so tired of it but I still love it,” Barch said of the roasted chicken, which also is used in sandwiches like the Ranch Chicken Club ($14 with side) and can be added to salads for $4.
Others will love it too, he thinks, especially since people keep stopping by the restaurant asking if they’re open yet.
Doughbird also roasts prime rib. Roasts clock in at about 8 pounds and cost around $100 each. Diners can order 10- or 14-ounce cuts as a main dish with side for $27 or $33. The beef is sliced to order and also comes inside the Prime Rib Dip sandwich ($18 with side) and as a salad topper ($5).
“It’s the closest thing to a prime rib carving station as you can get without a heat lamp and a guy wearing a tall white hat,” Barch said.
Pizzas are bold and creative
So what about the dough part of the bird? Eleven individual pizzas made the final menu, all priced at $14 to $16 (six slices). For the sauce, the kitchen uses Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes (the organic brand from Chris Bianco and Robert DiNapoli); and for the crust, Central Milling organic flour.
The Crispy Pastrami pizza has bold flavors of aged Gruyere, pickled mustard seed, purple kale and rye salt ($15).
The Bacon & Truffled Eggs is an elegant breakfast pizza that is topped with scrambled eggs, glazed bacon, fennel sausage, roasted onion, smoked mozzarella and arugula ($15).
The Spiral Ham is a play on Hawaiian pizza where the pineapple is coated in Sriracha sauce, the ham is shredded and both are joined by shishito pepper, Thai basil and smoked mozzarella ($15).
The pizza dough also is used to make the sandwich bread. It’s rolled into smaller discs, which bake for about 6 minutes. It’s also served as the carb dipper for the hummus dip.
Guests can order a gluten-free dough for $2 more.
For now, the same menu is served for lunch and dinner and is only available for dine-in. Eventually, Doughbird will add to-go service and specials such as roast lamb and pork.
Sam Fox began Fox Restaurant Concepts in 1998 with a single restaurant in Tucson. Now based in Phoenix, the company has more than 50 locations across America.
Fox has been nominated for Outstanding Restaurateur by the James Beard Foundation for 10 years, though he has yet to win the prestigious award. He recently landed on Restaurant Business’ Power 20 list for 2017.