A traveling companion’s picky-eating habit of ordering rotisserie chicken and fries every night from a corner shop near their lodging in Sevilla, Spain, inspired Oak Cliff native Skye McDaniel’s takeout restaurant concept in the Bishop Arts District.
“I was like, ‘That slaps,’” she says of those consistent Spanish meals her companion preferred to her daily food adventures.
La Bodega opened this week with a concept geared to neighbors who want to pick up weeknight meals for their families. That’s why it’s closed Friday-Saturday. McDaniel says she might consider opening on Fridays in the future, but the plan is to remain closed on Saturdays.
That’s unusual in the restaurant industry, but McDaniel says it makes sense for her concept. It also gives her team a rest on Bishop Arts’ busiest day, when parking is bonkers. The shop reopens at 3 p.m. Sunday, after the Bishop Arts brunch rush has died down.
Being on the edge of Bishop Arts helps in that regard. Customers can use the parking lot adjacent to Taco y Vino until 4 p.m., when it becomes a valet lot, or find a spot on the street. The errand should take less than 15 minutes, so customers are in and out.
The tiny storefront serves organic rotisserie chicken from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunday-Thursday.
McDaniel figured out that schedule to minimize food waste. Health code only allows hot chicken to be held for 4 hours. So if La Bodega is not sold out of bird at 3, they pick and shred the chicken to use in sandwiches and salads, which are available all the time.
The pulled chicken sandwich and fries ($15) from La Bodega has goat cheese, roasted garlic, mustard, arugula and caramelized onions.
A whole chicken costs $25. With fries, it’s $30. A half-bird costs $15, or $20 with fries.
The kitchen is too small to execute a wet brine, so McDaniel and chef Bryan Driver, a Winnetka Heights resident, concocted a recipe for a dry rub that consists only of salt and herbs.
She insisted on organic chicken, and she found a farm in Pennsylvania as a supplier; Ennis-based Forum Meat is her purveyor.
Everything on the menu keeps dietary restrictions and allergens in mind. McDaniel hosted a “Sunday supper” in her Beckley Club Estates backyard for years, and she had to consider all of her friends’ restrictions when cooking one meal for everybody.
Bread is the only thing on the menu that contains gluten. Frozen fries come from Simplot — again, the kitchen is too small to make them from scratch — and consist only of potatoes and oil. The fries are cooked in soybean oil, the only allergen on the menu.
Anything on the menu can be accommodated for a vegan diet.
“I eat a salad every day of my life. It’s my favorite food,” she says. “These are things that I eat every day.”
Skye McDaniel, owner/operator of La Bodega, grew up on Winnetka and owns a home in Beckley Club Estates.
McDaniel graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and went straight to culinary school at El Centro. She cut her teeth working for chef Graham Dodds at Bolsa, and she worked at Murray Street Coffee in Deep Ellum for 10 years, on and off. She was also part of Frank Underground for four years.
Javier García del Moral, who owns the adjacent Sketches of Spain and the Wild Detectives, was originally a partner in La Bodega, and he wound up having to pull out of their agreement but encouraged McDaniel to keep going.
His original idea was to also sell Spanish imports like fish and seafood conservas, cheeses, jamón and wine.
La Bodega sells artwork from locals, including Oak Cliff native Max Rasor, and McDaniel says she still wants to do the Spanish imports idea eventually.
La Bodega, at 208 W. 8th St., is open 3-8 p.m. Sunday and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; it’s closed Friday-Saturday.
