Kirkwood has a new destination for fried chicken. The Fryer’s Daughter opened doors yesterday, April 2, at 10332 Manchester Road, the former home of The Wood Cask. As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, owner Dan Marten wasn’t throwing in the towel on his former eatery after its last day of service on March 22 – just switching gears.
Most of the renovations to the restaurant were cosmetic, Martin said, and the concept has received a complete facelift. The compact menu is focused on fried chicken by the plate or the piece, and it also includes five sandwiches that can also be ordered as a salad or wrap. Available sides include slaw, three-bean salad, fries, sauteed spinach and cream corn. The full bar is still available for those who’d like some booze with their yard bird. “It’s still probably the best whiskey selection in Kirkwood,” Marten said.
Marten said he rebranded the restaurant after customers couldn’t quite grasp The Wood Cask’s concept. The whiskey bar and restaurant opened in 2015. “I loved the Wood Cask concept,” he said. “We went through a couple of menu changes, and I think maybe it confused customers slightly. You could call it an identity crisis. I also had people who came in and said ‘We thought you were a liquor store for the first year-and-a-half, so we just didn’t come in.'”
The new name is an homage to Marten’s daughters, who helped him start the business, as well as an unambiguous announcement of the restaurant’s new culinary direction (the words “chicken restaurant” are also prominently displayed after the name, just in case). “You read it, it’s catchy, and you immediately know what it is,” Marten said.
During the day, orders are taken at the counter, and Martin said speed is the focus of lunch service. “The goal is to have someone in and out in 30 minutes, max,” he said.
Table service takes over in the evening, and carryout is always available. Marten said a catering menu is in the works as well.
The Fryer’s Daughter will be open Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Matt Sorrell is a staff writer for Sauce Magazine.
This article appears in April 2017.