Bonehead
KILLER FRIED CHICKEN
With the cancellation of today’s football, I’m left with an unexpected free Saturday. My mate Julian also has time to kill before joining up with a stag party later, so we decide to meet for a few beers, kicking off with lunch at Bonehead.
Bonehead specialises in fried chicken, craft ales and hard liquor. If there’s not enough to love already, we’re talking beautifully tenderised buttermilk chicken, full of juicy flavour with a thick, crunchy coating of seasoned batter—House or Hothead, for those who like Nashville-style spicy.
It has been around for two years now and I can’t believe I’m in virgin territory, given there’s no doubt whatsoever that my last meal on death row would involve fried chicken. On arriving, Julian hands me a box of freshly laid eggs from home and despite the happy anticipation of a hangover-busting bacon and egg sandwich tomorrow, it also saddens me that there’ll be six fried chickens less in the world.
Downstairs bar
It’s a first come first served place—with no bookings taken—although there’s a great downstairs bar if you need to wait. It’s ‘industrial’ in that uber cool European city ‘dive bar’ kind of way. It’s my kind of bar (not that there are many that aren’t) so I’m almost disappointed there’s an immediate table free for us. We head upstairs, with pints in hand. It’s a more laid back space for dining, with a great energy in the room, driven by a cool 80s soundtrack occasionally audible over the room full of chatter and super efficient and friendly staff too.
Upstairs dining room
The menu is a fried chicken lover’s wet dream—with a veggie burger option for those who’ve foolishly decided to remove the phenomenal joy of fried chicken from their lives. I can’t see past the Friday the 13th special ‘directed by Lap Fai Lee’—a buttermilk fried spatchcock poussin with ‘hate crime’ hot sauce, fries and slaw. Julian goes for the Hothead burger with topped fries and suggests we share some Bonehead strips. I’ve always been easily led, but given I’ve got heat with my poussin, I push for the original house seasoning and garlic mayo option.
Strips with original house seasoning and garlic mayo
We’re in full catch up mode and before we know it the food arrives, all landing at once. Julian’s Hothead burger is a fried chicken thigh in Nashville hot seasoning, lettuce, gherkins and house ‘comeback sauce’. The topped fries look like a meal in itself—waffle fries with slaw and more ‘comeback sauce’. He’s well happy.
Hothead burger and topped fries
My Friday the 13th special is a piece of art, rippled like lava flows in thick, golden brown batter. Size wise it wouldn’t look out of place on the Sunday lunch table, so our order of chicken strips are a bit superfluous but the garlic mayo provides some respite from the nose gushing and eyeball bursting 'hate crime' sauce; it must be completely off the Scoville Scale. Fortunately we’ve ordered another pint to quell the flames, although the heat remains relentlessly hostile, but it’s a masochistic delight.
Friday the 13th Special - spatchcock poussin with hate crime sauce, fries and coleslaw
The waffle fries are just a sideshow; neither waffle nor, more importantly, decent fries. But the slaw is fresh and crisp providing brief relief for the fierce heat of the main battle. It feels like I’ve been eating for ages, but it seems to be self-replenishing and eventually I have to throw in the towel, despite it only looking about half eaten.
Julian picks up the bill and we head off for more beers, with it being highly likely I’ll arrive home without the eggs, having left them in a bar.
RECOMMENDED
Bonehead, 8 Lower Severn Street, Birmingham, B1 1PU
