Birdcall Is Flying High With Fifteen Locations...Including One at Red Rocks

After years of refining its business model, Birdcall is ready to hatch its biggest expansion yet. The fast-casual chicken joint that won the Readers' Choice award for Best Chicken Sandwich in the Best of Denver 2024 opened two new locations just last week, while also expanding its flock to franchisees.

Denver restaurateurs Jean-Philippe Failyau and Peter Newlin opened the first Birdcall in Five Points in 2017, in the former home of Tom's Home Cookin'. Co-founders of Gastamo Group, the hospitality company behind local favorites like Park Burger and Homegrown Tap & Dough, they wanted to redefine fast-casual dining by combining high-quality, all- natural chicken with cutting-edge technology built around a proprietary point-of-sale system, which they call Poncho.

That system was developed in-house after the founders found existing options too clunky and rigid. Unlike traditional POS systems, Poncho integrates front-of-house and back-of-house operations, allowing orders placed at self-service kiosks to flow directly to the kitchen, speeding up service while minimizing errors; customers pick up their orders at automated pickup cubbies. Owning its own system not only makes service more efficient, but gives Birdcall tighter control over operations, customer data and menu tweaks.

Birdcall’s menu focuses on fried chicken sandwiches that range from the classic Original to the Nashville Hot, featuring spicy fried chicken and sweet pickles, and the Southern, which pairs pimento cheese with Southern coleslaw. Birdcall also offers salads, nuggets, tater tots and milkshakes; at some locations, it even has breakfast items such as the Southern Chicken & Egg biscuit and the Green Chile Burrito.

Birdcall quickly built up a loyal fan base that appreciated sandwiches that were fast, tasty, and convenient. By 2023, Birdcall had expanded to eight locations and made a move into Arizona. That’s when the founders brought on Mark Lohmann as CEO. Lohmann had started his career as a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver; after business school, he did stints with the Boston Consulting Group, Qdob and was president of REGO Restaurant Group, the parent company of Quiznos and Tacos Del Mar. Drawn to the Birdcall business model and its sandwiches (his personal favorite is the Rancher with bacon onion jam, white cheddar and barbeque sauce), he took over operations as the founders stepped back from daily operations but remained involved.
With Lohmann on board, Birdcall could fly up to the next level. “There’s no way that Birdcall can’t be a brand that’s in every major city, every state in the U.S.,” he says. “Customers love coming…it’s got a great vibe, it’s got a great experience.”

Today, Birdcall has fifteen locations, including a new one in Fort Collins and a spot that just opened at Red Rocks. “We could not be more excited about Red Rocks!” exclaims Lohmann. “This is something we’ve been talking to the City of Denver about for a while.” The concession stand is the only branded restaurant at Red Rocks; because of a smaller kitchen and high order volume at the venue, it has a slimmed-down menu.

For Birdcall, Red Rocks isn’t just a great partnership, it’s also a smart marketing move. “We know that people who love Birdcall also love Red Rocks. And what we’re already seeing is that people who love Red Rocks now learn about Birdcall, and they can then come visit one of our restaurants in Denver or Dallas or Phoenix,” explains Lohmann.
With expansion comes concerns about quality control, but Lohmann assures Birdcall fans that there will be no change in ingredient sourcing. Birdcall now sources 100 percent of its chicken from Colorado Native, and there are no current plans to change that or reduce portion sizes.

In 2023, the company brought on chef Amador Acosta as VP of Culinary. He'd previously worked as corporate executive chef for AltaMarea Group, a global fine-dining restaurant company whose portfolio includes Marea, a New York City restaurant with two Michelin stars, and Ai Fiori, another New York restaurant that has one star. He also worked on the Whole Foods Global Culinary team, developing and managing iculinary operations for all 550+ locations.

Acosta brought industry best practices and standards to Bircall's menu, and also started its limited-time offer program. A personal favorite was the January 2024 Spicy SzechYuan”sandwich, developed in collaboration with chef Penelope Wong of Yuan Wonton, with Szechuan chili oil, honey ginger coleslaw and charred scallion kewpie mayo. The current special is Crispy Chicken Shawarma, with Little Sesame Jammy Tomato hummus and cucumber yogurt salad.

At the end of 2024, Gastamo Group announced that Birdcall was accepting applications for franchising. That was one of the biggest business decisions Lohmann has made at Birdcall, but he believes it's a business model that can work in all parts of America. “It really comes down to the question of not just capital utilization to go out and build in a bunch of markets across the United States, but also in terms of building market knowledge to go out and build in cities that many of us have never, ever been to,” he says.

No franchise locations have been announced, but Lohmann says they're in the works. The company is looking for “someone or a group that has experience in the restaurant industry," he notes. "They’ve got existing infrastructure where they’ve done this before, they've operated multi-unit restaurant brands in the past."

Even with all the talk of an economic downturn, Lohmann sees opportunity in expansion. “If there is a downturn, I think what we would see...is a guest who may have been electing to go to a full-service sit-down restaurant for an evening may choose to come to us,” he says. In recognition of customers' financial concerns, Birdcall recently rolled out Bird in a Box, a full chicken dinner for $9.95; the bundle includes either two sliders or a slider plus tenders, along with a choice of fries or tots, sauce and a side of pickles.

Could Birdcall be Denver’s next fast-casual success story? The city has already launched heavyweights like Chipotle, Smashburger, Modern Market, Quiznos, Tokyo Joe’s, and MAD Greens — and Birdcall is hoping to fly high, too.