At this casual, family-friendly chicken shop, it’s all in the details

At The Harvey House, owners Shaina Robbins Papach and Joe Papach are used to putting fine-dining food in front of guests — plates like slow-cooked salmon with pea tendrils, a New York strip steak with a brandy peppercorn jus and chicken liver mousse with port wine jelly.

But when they’re home, the pair serve much younger guests — their three children, who are all younger than 7.

So when the opportunity came to open a second restaurant, they decided on a concept that fell somewhere between The Harvey House and dinner at home. They opened Butterbird, a casual counter-service chicken restaurant.

“Our kids don’t exactly frequent Harvey House, but they love Butterbird,” says Robbins Papach. “We wanted to create a place that was fun — and [somewhere] that the parents want to go to as well.”

Madison’s new fried chicken spot — The Harvey House Director of Operations Kaitlin Fischer is also a partner — was designed with kids and families in mind. It’s a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere with warm lighting, vintage decor, a claw machine on the back wall, concrete terrazzo flooring and, of course, the tempting smell of fried chicken.

There’s plenty of chicken on Butterbird’s menu — fried, rotisserie and tenders — but there’s also a selection of sandwiches, salads and snacks (think chicken-fried cheese curds and soft pretzels). For the adults, a meal might be accompanied by a draft cocktail or a beer.

Running a quick-service chicken shop might seem worlds away from a fine-dining establishment, but they’re sticking to the same values.

“There are three components to a great meal: the hospitality, the food and the space,” says Robbins Papach. “I hope people leave with a strong sense of hospitality and thoughtfulness … and I hope they leave wanting to come back.”

Butterbird | 1134 Regent St. | butterbird.com

Featured Dish: ‘Wisco’s Finest Chicken’

“Joe started making fried chicken at some of our events at The Harvey House,” says Shaina Robbins Papach. “He would bring it out at the end of the night, and people were responding to it really enthusiastically.” Now it’s Butterbird’s calling card, featuring crispy skin, tender meat and standalone flavor even without one of Butterbird’s eight sauces. Each piece of chicken is brined in a buttermilk mixture for 24 hours, dredged in seasoned flour and fried for 10 and a half minutes in a pressure fryer. The key to a perfect, crispy crust is a particular ratio of rice flour and all-purpose flour. “We found that rice flour gave it just enough crunchiness … and made the fried chicken lighter,” says Joe Papach.

Highly Recommended: The Family’s Favorites

Robbins Papach can’t choose a favorite menu item — “It changes week to week,” she says — but her go-to right now is the rotisserie sandwich, hot honey sweet potato and a margarita. Her 6-year-old son, Max, is a fan of the cheeseburger, 5-year-old Charlie prefers the mac ‘n’ cheese and 3-year-old Frances tends to want the tenders and a vanilla soft serve with sprinkles. The kids enjoy a sense of ownership in the new spot. “Max says that he designed the restaurant,” says Robbins Papach. “Charlie loves the claw machine, and he wins a lot, and he’ll give his winnings to other kids around the restaurant.”

All Are Welcome: Fun At Any Age

Butterbird is a kid-friendly restaurant, but it’s still plenty of fun for grown-ups. Check out the wall of photo booth strips for proof: Alongside goofy (and, often, much too close-up) shots of children are college students out for a meal, adult couples enjoying a date night and elderly pairs wearing sweet smiles or sharing a kiss on the cheek. The movies playing silently on screens around Butterbird — ’80s classics like “The Breakfast Club,” “Goonies,” “The Princess Bride” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” — are a nostalgic wink to the adults, too.

Diner Details: Look at All Those Chickens

The restaurant’s design is reminiscent of an old-school diner. Throwback touches are everywhere, from the font for the red-and-white logo painted on the front windows to the backlit lettering at the counter. But there’s another, more playful design element: chickens. Ceramic chicken statuettes, chicken pushpins holding up photo strips, even a wall of vintage chicken art opposite the restrooms.

Classic, Casual, Chic

It’s all in the details — down to Butterbird’s employee uniform, which consists of a gingham shirt or denim jumpsuit and a red bandana. The ensemble is both practical and aesthetic: Denim is comfortable and durable, while the gingham brings a kind of throwback charm. The red is a nod to the restaurant’s neighbors, the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Anna Kottakis is digital editor at Madison Magazine.

This article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Madison Magazine with the headline “Fancy Goes Fast.” Subscribe today .

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