Dirty Birds co-owners, Moses Moseley and Dan Whalen, met working the line at Kitchen Table. A shared love for community and quality food pushed them toward ownership of their own restaurant. One day they looked at each other and decided to turn the words into reality.

Moseley and Whalen spoke of their aspirations over drinks at Pageturners Lounge before launching their first pop-up restaurant at Rose & Crown Pub. After the success there, they moved to Dandelion Pop-Up. Social media marketing played a big hand in getting the Dirty Birds name buzzing. They had a six-month plan to try and get a residency somewhere.

A month after their first pop-up, The Switch in Midtown reached out with an offer for them to move into their food court.

At the Switch, Dirty Birds announced their new phone number with a picture of one of their staff members, Mike, laying with his legs up, holding a sign that read, “Call for a good time 402-557-5558.” After two years of roaring success, Dirty Birds moved to its current location in the Flatiron at 1722 St Marys Ave.

Community is at the heart of Dirty Birds, and their decor reflects this. The special is posted promptly at the counter, on one of their hand-drawn, signature cardboard signs. The staff greets you with smiles almost like they’ve known you forever.

Artwork drawn by Moseley hangs by the kitchen door next to pictures they drew on butcher paper during down time at The Switch. Signs from San Francisco hang behind the bar an homage of Moseley’s wife. The side walls feature work by their artist friends. A stained-glass Wu-Tang Chicken smoking a cigarette that hangs in the front window was made by Lambrecht Glass.

To emphasize their commitment to making a unifying space, the tables are long, wooden picnic tables built by Whalen’s dad. The picnic style tables offer an opportunity to engage with strangers. Eating at Dirty Birds will bring patrons back to the fun of school lunches, but with kick-ass food.

At Dirty Birds, chicken reigns supreme. Their menu features their take on Nashville hot, respectfully dubbed “Omahawt”.  You can get their signature brined bone-in chicken in a 2, 3, or 8-piece combo served original or Omahawt.

“Fried chicken, man, it’s the great unifier,” Moseley remarked.

The menu has chicken sandwiches, sweet-tea chicken strips, and a toothsome spin on a southern staple with their Chicken and Pancakes. Moseley brought the sweet tea brine used in their chicken tenders, which was refined by Whalen. Among other ingredients, their achiote grilled chicken brine utilizes orange Kool-Aid. Right now you might be thinking: Kool-Aid, seriously? Whalen said, “It’s harder to keep orange juice fresh and in the quantities we need, plus, Kool-Aid is a Nebraska thing.”

Moseley and Whalen didn’t stop there. Inventive specialty items make exclusive appearances on the menu. The chefs’ favorite short rib and mac and cheese came out of happenstance when a call came in from one of their purveyors about some short rib up for bid. Whalen and Moseley seized the opportunity to innovate a new dish. The BBQ Chicken and Grits, Kimchi Chicken Salad Sando, and the Chicken Parmesan Sandwich make their elusive appearances as well.

The ‘Debo’ Sauce, titled after Whalen’s AKA, is Dirty Birds in-house hot sauce. It was birthed in their beginnings at Kitchen Table, where they would prepare dishes with Whalen’s garlic honey hot sauce. In their come up, Moseley and Whalen got to work refining the sauce at the American Test kitchen until it was a perfect, reliable product.

Dirty Birds takes pride in being unique. Their plates have never seen frozen food, their pickles and green beans are brined in-house, everything is made-to-order. Moseley and Whalen are currently working on a bun recipe to replace the Rotella buns they use. One of their most popular sides are the blue corn hush puppies. Moseley and Whalen fell in love with blue corn while work-shopping at home. Blue corn is less sweet than yellow and provides a grainier, more homestyle texture, and “it’s really pretty, man,” gushed Moseley.

Whalen and Moseley can usually be found in the kitchen whipping it up from 11am to 9pm Tuesday through Thursday and 11am to 2am Friday and Saturday.

Every Sunday there’s brunch: No Calls, No Reservations, Get In Where You Fit In. “It’s not easy to wake up for but it’s our favorite meal to serve,” Moseley said. The brunch menu gets posted on their Instagram weekly and stars ‘Fried Chicken and Such’ as well as brunch-y, rotating ‘Mains’ like The ‘Debo’ and Catfish and Grits.    

The Soul Brunch is a special brunch they hold that has live music. The idea came from their friend, DJ Tyrone Storm, after he came to a brunch at Dirty Birds. After a hiatus in January, Soul Brunch returned on February 26th. The Valentine’s inspired Brunch set was called “The Quiet Storm.”

Moseley and Whalen strive for their restaurant to be a place where patrons can meet people who you might not meet otherwise; a place where community and togetherness prevails. Dirty Birds was funded and built off Whalen and Moseley, making Dirty Birds a rare spot owned by chefs who hopped off the line and got their own space. They made Dirty Birds a place you can make new connections, make fun of friends, new and old, then buy them a beer.

Call Dirty Birds for a good time 402-557-5558…or hop online: www.dirtybirds69.com.