The Butterfly

Like most friendships, Hungry and I share a love of a number of things (but differ on enough things to keep conversations interesting!). Two things we both love are fried chicken, and restaurants by Michael White. So when she mentioned to me that one of his newest places, The Butterfly, offered fried chicken, there was no question where our next meal together would be.

The cocktail list was carefully curated and really, quite beautiful to behold; however, when our awesome server came over and explained the two drink specials to us, one of them immediately caught my attention. It was delicious, well-made, and perfect for me – so good, in fact, that I had a second one – but unfortunately, I can’t remember what was in it. Based on my immediate desire for one, though, I’ll guess that there was gin, sparkling, elderflower, lemon, or some combination of those things. I’m sorry. Maybe Hungry remembers.

Hungry and I decided to split appetizers. When she saw pork rinds on the menu, she had to get them – light, airy, and not greasy at all, these were a great little snack. Perhaps a little pricy at $8 though.

I’d heard much about the Reuben croquettes, so it was a no brainer to order these as well. Perfectly fried little balls of corned beef, sauerkraut, with rye breadcrumbs and a thousand island dipping sauce on the side, these were really delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed eating them – though I will say I’ve actually never had a classic Reuben.

Recalling a prior experience where we’d dined and wished we’d ordered fries, we also ordered fries. These were satisfactory in terms of being fries, but not really my preferred style of fry nor tasty enough to be worth a special order. Pass on these next time.

As for the fried chicken… very juicy, moist, tasty. It was good, very good fried chicken indeed. (I tried requesting all dark meat, but that didn’t happen.) Crisp exterior, flavorful, and just solid fried chicken. However, at the end of the meal, the bottom line feeling? It was $23 for the above plate. At 2x the price of Bobwhite Counter (my current favorite fried chicken place), it was NOT two times better.

I guess I’ll stick to Bobwhite for fried chicken (which is funny, because I first went there after reading Chef Michael White’s favorite fried chicken is at Bobwhite) and eat something else at The Butterfly… but I will definitely be back, because the rest of the menu looks great too!

We also split dessert – the Hot Blonde, brown butter pecan ice cream with a blondie and salted caramel. Though it looks and sounds sickeningly sweet, it was very well-balanced with a lot of good texture throughout the cup. My one complaint was that the vessel in which it was served made it hard to eat/share comfortably, as I had to dig a bit for pieces of the blondie. Thankfully, Hungry and I are pals, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Overall, I really liked The Butterfly – the casual, chic interior that was slightly cramped, very kitsch; excellent service with a really funny waitress who didn’t bat an eye when *cough* a piece of my chicken flew out of my hands and landed unceremoniously on the seat next to me, but instead just winked and said “I didn’t see a thing” – hah! – and a fantastic cocktail program with well-made drinks, well, I’ll definitely be back. I just likely won’t be ordering the fried chicken again… no worries, plenty of other stuff on the menu to eat!