Hot Chicken and Cold Beer Will Soon Land in Longmont and Stapleton

The brined, seasoned and fried chicken at the Post Brewing Co. in Lafayette is crackling good. So it's natural that the recipe developed by executive chef Brett Smith and company would take roost in other parts of the metro area. Meet the new fried flock at GoodBird Kitchen, coming soon to Longmont and Stapleton.

The Lafayette mothership attracts an unending, ravenous crowd coming for the chicken, the creative small plates and hearty entrees — not to mention the beers being brewed behind the scenes. According to Dave Query, founder and owner of the Big Red F Restaurant Group that runs the Post and is launching Goodbird, the ethos of the new eateries is to build on that success but make things simpler and faster. "We're gonna really focus in on roasted and fried chicken, a lot of cold beer, and all the things that go with it," he explains.

GoodBird will be a counter-service joint with a full bar at the location near the upcoming Village at the Peaks mall in Longmont and at the Stanley Marketplace in Stapleton. Think chicken sandwiches, whoopie pies and frosty Post beers in cans. The goal here is to have a minute or less "from the time you pull on the front door to the time you're sat with a drink in your hand," Query says, in a model he dubs "extreme-casual." 
Following the progress of the Post's excellent happy-hour offerings, GoodBird will also offer a 4 to 6 p.m. special with unique snacks, cheap beers and several cocktails. That's the perfect time to enjoy the large patios planned for both locations. And though the menu and the "Michigan roadhouse meets mountain cabin" decor will be much the same, the two spots couldn't be more different. The Longmont store is being built in a former 3 Margaritas, which for decades before that was a Pizza Hut. Though the town has seen a lot of non-franchise restaurants come and go in recent years, Query thinks Longmont is the right place, stating "We’ve looked at Longmont on and off for a long time. We feel good with the concept that we're bringing there, the approachability of this fried chicken and the price point we're going to be at. We've taken a long time to figure out what the right concept is for Longmont, and I think we've figured it out with GoodBird."

And then there's the new Stanley Marketplace, which Query describes as "like a smaller version of the Embarcadero in San Francisco," a hall of bustling restaurants and shops where GoodBird Kitchen will have a little piece of the pie. While the new concept is already spreading its wings with these two locations, Query plans to keep growth within the Big Red F brood. "I think we would always be involved with opening the stores; we don’t have any interest in doing this as a franchise model," Query adds. "We're going to look at doing more stores and see how it works. It's exciting, because there's a lot of simplicity to it — we’re able to focus on one thing and do it really, really well."

The Big Red F is planning on opening the doors to the Longmont GoodBird in December, followed by Stanley Marketplace in early 2016 — along with the canned debut of two more Post Brewing beers.