Brookside Poultry relocating, adding steakhouse with ‘really, really reasonable prices’

Chef Charles d’Ablaing set out to offer some of the best fried chicken in the city when he opened Brookside Poultry Co. two years ago.

The crispy pieces — brined first in sour cream for 48 hours — are the star of the tightly focused menu. Other items include spit roasted whole birds, wings, sandwiches and Southern-style offerings such as shrimp and grits and black-eyed pea soup. The brightly lit, unpretentious and family-friendly East Brookside restaurant has built a loyal following.

Now d’Ablaing wants to do the same thing with steaks.

So he’s relocating Brookside Poultry to a larger space a few blocks east at 751 E. 63rd St. and will open a new concept, Brookside Beef Co., in the same building.

“It will be a traditional steakhouse but a low-key kind of thing like the chicken joint,” d’Ablaing said. “But really high-end, high-quality beef and really, really reasonable prices. Not an everyday dining place, but maybe once a week. My goal is for two people to get the best steak dinners in the city and a bottle of wine for about $100.”

Menu items will include a 24-ounce USDA Prime Porterhouse steak for $35, and a 13-ounce Kansas City strip steak for $24. Prices could go up or down from time to time as meat prices change.

d’Ablaing hopes to have both concepts open in the new space in late February or early March. They will share a kitchen.

Brookside Poultry is typically closed Sundays and Mondays. So his goal is to close in his current spot on a Saturday night and reopen in the new place for lunch the following Tuesday.

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 2:04 PM.