CUISINE
Annie Williams Pierce (left), Tyler Minnis and Luke Pierce at their newest venture, Boxwood Buiscuit Co., which opened in the Short North in March 2021. THE CONCEPT FOR Boxwood Biscuit
Co. is nothing revolutionary, says chef Tyler Minnis. “Who doesn’t like chicken and biscuits?” he says. The key, for the Short North fast-casual joint, is making it stand out. “We do it our own way to try and be a little different,” Minnis says. “I try to push food and try to do things a little different than other people in town, or else what’s the point?” Boxwood began as a pop-up during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shop operated on weekends out the side of Law Bird, a Brewery District space
run by Boxwood’s owners, husband-andwife team Luke and Annie Williams Pierce, since 2019. The concept initially sold buttermilk biscuits, biscuit sandwiches and biscuit-and-gravy flights under the kitchen direction of Minnis. A desire to stand out led Boxwood to collaborate with Hot Chicken Takeover in October 2020, a partnership that solidified the concept that would ultimately become Boxwood’s brick-and-mortar offering. “We’ve always done the biscuits part,” Williams Pierce says. “When we collaborated with HCT, that was a major event for us and got our brains working. If we were going to go for our own space,
we needed to be more than just breakfast, and fried chicken seemed to be the perfect item to transition our menu into the lunch hours, too.” Boxwood’s chicken is fried using a Korean batter method instead of the traditional Southern style, one of many subtle Asian influences permeating the menu. “It kind of has an underlying Asian feel or theme to it that some people may not pick up on,” Minnis says. “I didn’t want to do too obvious because it is an Appalachian, Southern-style restaurant for the most part.” In addition to the Korean-style fried chicken, Minnis says, the kimchi braised greens, a Firebird sandwich with chicken dunked in a hot Asian glaze, and pork sausage miso gravy add to the underlying theme of the menu. The biscuits come from a more traditional source: Minnis’ greatgrandmother’s recipe. Of course, even that has been adapted. “I actually did about 12 different variations until we landed on this one,” Minnis says. Some of the experimentation with the menu for Boxwood, as well as the concept, can be credited to the pandemic. In 2020, Esquire included Law Bird on its list of the best bars in America. By then, Law Bird had been forced into closing, along with the rest of Ohio, after just four months open for business. Minnis and the Pierces made the most of their time in quarantine, though, initially by turning Law Bird into more of a retail store for bottled cocktails. One collaboration led to
Risky Biscuits
Industry veterans collaborate on fast-casual spot in the Short North By Claire Miller 10
Photos courtesy of David Powers
cityscenecolumbus.com | January/February 2022