Crispy duck egg with pork belly at Birch & Barley. Courtesy Neighborhood Restaurant Group

Dish of the week: Crispy duck egg with pork belly
Where: Birch & Barley

If newly opened 14th Street haunt Birch & Barley were a reality show, its beers would be the attention-craving divas — stars that are unique and dramatic, even a little demanding, with their myriad optimal temperatures and specialty glassware. The food on Executive Chef Kyle Bailey’s menu, however, would be those quirky, likable characters on the show just nipping at the stars’ heels, flying under the radar, but obviously determined to go big or go home.

At Birch & Barley, Bailey designed a menu comprised of his own takes on classic flavors that would pair well with beer, including the crispy duck egg with pork belly. Although this new addition to the menu is an appetizer, when you bite into it, it’s hard not to fantasize about having this perfectly-cooked, intensely textural concoction for breakfast. (Note: for a morning order you might want to skip the suggested beer pairing.)

The deep fried, soft-boiled egg breaks open with a springy crunch when you dig in, the golden crust giving way to yolky goodness spilling out onto the waiting bed of frisée dressed in the slightest bit of apple cider reduction. Fork a bite of the egg together with a piece of the pork belly, dunk the whole thing in the mix of yolk and sweetly acidic reduction on the plate, and it’s obvious Bailey’s menu isn’t going to play second fiddle to the restaurant’s beer list.

Right after the restaurant opened in October, Bailey was worried that everyone’s focus would be on the beer, he told DCist after a media tasting this week. His Birch & Barley menu pulled on his experience cooking in five-star resorts and New York restaurants like Cru and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, but at first, he says, people weren’t interested. “The first couple of weeks, everyone came in and ordered burgers. I was thinking I made a big mistake,” the chef said. He even took a foie gras appetizer off the menu because it wasn’t selling. But things have changed now, he said, and “more of the diners are coming in” with big appetites and high expectations. Meaning the duck is here to stay? Most definitely, Bailey said. Don’t count out that foie gras either. “I keep getting requests to bring it back,” he added.