Rye Bird Opens in Fairfield with Southern American Comfort Food

Since April of 2024, a new restaurant by the name of Rye Bird, located in the former home of Isla in Fairfield, teased a tasty, affordable, neighborhood restaurant concept.

Operated by Post Road Hospitality, Rye Bird officially cracked open its doors on October 19 after hosting some patio preview parties prior to its grand opening.

Rye Bird’s founder and president Frank Klein hopes it’ll catch on as the “next neighborhood joint” for a bunch of reasons.

“It started originally as a bourbon and chicken joint, but it evolved into an American tavern,” he says. “We laugh when we call it this, but we call it an upscale family dive bar focusing on extremely good cocktails and food and a good vibe. We play vinyl records. There’s mood lighting. Someone recently walked in and asked if this was a private party. I said no, but also that I appreciate that it has that feel. We want to be affordable and be repeatable. It’s good for kids, families, and it morphs as the day does on. Families early, hang with friends or go on a date later on.”

The “daily pot pie” with a buttery, flaky crust and mushroom gravy to pour on top, inside, of both.

Bacon wrapped shrimp

House made mac & cheese with Ritz crumbles and fried chicken skin

If you’re wondering about Klein’s story, he may be a Fairfield newbie, but he’s an industry veteran who owned two successful restaurants in San Francisco in First Crush, a wine bar, and Fish & Farm. He’d later get into the consulting side of the business. Along the way, Klein founded Asian Box, a Vietnamese inspired micro chain that cooks from scratch and uses fresh ingredients.

At Rye Bird, think Americana with lots of Down South influence and helping out this new-to-Fairfield concept is consultant Benjamin Freemole, whose name should ring a bell if you’ve dined at Tavern at Graybarns in the past.

Crispy wings tossed in your choice of daily homemade sauces

“Over the course of a couple months, we kept having drinks together,” Klein says. “He was aligned with wanting this to be the next great Americana type of concept and it’s the kind of cuisine that he does and that he’s an expert at. Right place, right time. He was looking for a new project and I want someone for the long term to hopefully open more of these. Lots of great chefs in this area ate at Graybarns when he was there and he’s unpretentious about it and doesn’t have a big ego.”

Now that he’s taken his knowledge over to Rye Bird, Freemole and the staff are whipping up comforts like homemade mac & cheese, pull apart cheesy bread with herbed butter, fresh baked chicken pot pies (with an option of “smothered,” aka, with mushroom gravy to pour on top), a smash burger, and their spin on a spicy chicken sandwich called “The Hot House,” with Rye Sauce (similar to a burger or Big Mac sauce), pepper dust seasoning, and jalapeño relish.

Chicken skins that resemble brittle in appearance are flattened, then dried on parchment paper in the cold walk in fridge, then fried to order.

Three piece fried chicken (tender, thigh, and wing)

Being that it’s one of Rye Bird’s focal points, let’s get back to that fried chicken.

Klein describes Rye Bird’s bird as straightforward, not greasy, and not overly crunchy.

“It’s a simple table recipe from the south,” he says. “It’s a five-ingredient dry rub overnight, dipped in a special flour mix, par fried, then we let it sit, then it’s fried again. There’s no buttermilk or agents to make it crispier. We just wanted it to taste really killer and be an everyman’s fried chicken with a ton of flavor.”

At the bar, there’s not only local craft beer and wine, but a strong cocktail list of martinis, old fashioneds, seven of their own signature mixed drinks, a couple of boozy milkshakes, but Rye Bird has their own rum brand, in both white and an 8-year aged reserve that’s finished in sherry casks, called Fairfields Rum.

Rye Bird’s baked goods, including the cheesy bread and this apple crumble, come courtesy of Billy’s Bakery.

Fairfields Rum is produced by Next Century Spirits in Raleigh, North Carolina using fairtrade ingredients and nothing artificial.

“Next Century distills the rum using our ingredients with our trademarks, our bottle, everything,” Klein explains. “We thought about having a local producer make it, but we didn’t want to mess around for several years getting it right. We wanted someone to start on it right away. They do a great job. It’s 100% sugarcane and molasses—no additives, no coloring, nothing like that.”

We’ll leave you with one final tidbit that we got from Klein as he told us the Rye Bird space will soon double as a ghost kitchen for Skull City Taquitos, a Cali-Mex concept that falls under Post Road Hospitality’s umbrella. And if that’s not enough, he’s toying with the idea of bringing Asian Box to Connecticut as well.

1560 Post Road, Fairfield
203.955.1052; ryebird.com