The Foundry Bar/Chicken Scratch is a good looking, Austin-like oasis of beer, chicken and wood pallets in Oak Cliff on Pittman, just past a trailer park. Even though I’d heard more bad than good about the food at Chicken Scratch, I’d been meaning to check out the place for quite some time. SMOKE chef Tim Byres is the man behind the scratch, and that alone makes for a compelling restaurant. Add the Oak Cliff location, chicken and home cooking-focused menu and the sweet outdoor space and I’m so there. We started outside drinking beers, but when the mosquitoes started biting we decided to dine inside.

The menu inside at Chicken Scratch is small but packed with plenty to try. And the prices are good. We ordered a half rotisserie bird, a small mac, fries and greens plus three sauces (BBQ, ranch and honey), a soft drink — and a biscuit. The bill was $20 and change.

The decor at CS is Rustic-Farmhouse-Tasty.

Pictured here was some decently juicy rotisserie chicken topped with pickles. I was particularly fond of their ranch, which was more of a sour cream dip but I didn’t mind. The barbecue sauce I could take or leave. And I won’t say I didn’t dip hunks of that chicken in the honey sauce. Nope.

We ordered up some Sweet & Salty Fries, Mac ‘n Cheese and Collard Greens (pictured here are smalls, which were just $2 each). As you can see we also got a giant biscuit, which was so dry it could have been a scone, and some honey sauce to dunk it in.

Fries were pretty dang good. Some stuck together in huge chunks, which was amusing. They taste GREAT dunked in that buttermilk ranch.

Lastly, here’s a small shot of some of the turkey neck meat that lives in the tasty cup o’ greens we tried. Here’s how I found out how Byres makes collard greens taste good:

Me: “What’s that meat there in them collard greens we got?”

Hipster Waitress: “That’s turkey neck meat, ma’am.”

Me: “Well hot damn I like that.”

Now I’ve never had collard greens I didn’t hate, until I had these. The meaty, stewy preparation was just right. It felt homey like my mother-in-law’s stuffed cabbage, and yet it appeared to be somewhat healthy. No grease to be seen. I’d definitely order that again.

Here’s my gets and skips for Chicken Scratch:

GET: Chicken, Collard Greens, Fries, Ranch

SKIP: extra BBQ sauce, Biscuits

The Foundry Bar & Chicken Scratch | 2303 & 2304 Pittman Street | cs-tf.com