The story below is from our January/February 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Jaybird Tavern is equal parts cozy neighborhood bar and destination pizza shop.
I’ve lived in Roanoke for more than five years and I’ve never wanted to live closer to downtown restaurants than now. I’m jealous of the folks who are within walking distance of Jaybird Tavern, but I’d happily make the 40-minute round-trip drive to sup on crispy, thin-crust Chicago tavern-style pizza, saucy chicken wings and excellent bar snacks in this laid-back corner of cool on Luck Avenue SW.
Jaybird Tavern was opened in July 2024 by Jason Martin, who also owns downtown spots Martin’s and Sidecar (both of which are a solid option for grabbing a drink if you find yourself waiting for a table at Jaybird, which is no-reservations). Martin was inspired to create an eatery centered around Chicago tavern-style pizza after taking multiple trips to the Windy City with a close friend who is a Chicago native. Tavern pizza, which is also called bar pizza in the Midwest, is so named because back in the day, it was often served for free to entice patrons to continue drinking. As is tradition, the 13-inch thin and crispy pizzas are sliced into squares, aka “party cut” to encourage sharing, although as Jaybird’s menu states, “Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself” (a quote attributed to Bill Murray but not verified).
The “move,” also according to the menu, is to order one pie and another dish or two to split between two people. But the line-up is so good you might want to plan for leftovers or bring a few friends to pile into a booth or commandeer a section of the central communal table under the glowing suspended light fixtures. The composed pizzas reflect Martin’s desire to build an American pizzeria by featuring whimsical combinations and traditional takes alike. There are original pies like the Weird Al Pastor, scattered with chorizo and tajín-dusted pineapple and drizzled with salsa verde, and my personal favorite, The Shak, named for shakshuka, the Moroccan dish of eggs baked in tomato sauce, that stars sunny eggs with perfectly runny yolks, juicy sausage, feta crumbles, pickled onion and tangy African Bird Pepper sauce (pro tip: ask for hot honey to drizzle on top to add a sweet-spicy kick).
Contemporary American classics are represented here, too, like the best-selling Ace of Spades which eats like a souped-up pepperoni pie drizzled with hot honey and strewn with Peruvian drop peppers; the Nantucket, a clam pizza with roasted garlic-chili oil that calls to mind New Haven’s white clam pies; and the Rocky Top, which riffs on barbecue chicken by way of Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, topped with shredded house-smoked chicken, pickles and Peruvian drop peppers. And lest anyone feel left out, vegans and gluten-free folks can sub in gluten-free crust and vegan cheese or plant-based Beyond Pepperoni, or dream up their own inventive combos from the build your own pizza menu.
Jaybird’s other intended focal point is the cherrywood-smoked wings, available boneless (chicken thighs) and bone-in, both smoked over cherrywood and crisped up in the fryer before being drenched with your sauce of choice. If you can’t make up your mind, choose two sauces to split between an order of 12 wings. I highly recommend the hot honey, which yields a delightfully sticky and saucy wing, or the African Bird Pepper for something different, though Martin says that the Nashville, moonshine BBQ and classic Buffalo are perennially popular too, especially on weekends when football games and sporting events are broadcast on the large TVs mounted behind the bar.
Between the pizzas and wings, you’d think you’d have enough decisions to make, but then you’d miss out on the snacks, including bar nosh that pairs particularly well with a pint or a craft cocktail, like the hot honey laced Bee’s Knees. Opt for a basket of fresh Rhode Island clams, hand-breaded and fried to crispy-craggy perfection, all the better for dunking into the accompanying lemon-caper tartar sauce, or the infinitely snackable blistered shishito peppers, which are usually mild with the occasional spicy outlier, but on a recent visit the piquancy quotient skewed much higher.
As a personal rule of dining out, if there’s a dip on the menu I always order it for the table, and Jaybird Tavern’s smoked trout dip, crafted with North Carolina rainbow trout, horseradish and capers and served with warm bread sticks, is a crowd-pleaser. The tasty bar meatballs, made with Virginia pasture-raised beef and teamed up with a duo of red sauce and pistachio-basil pesto, can be ordered as a snack or in the meatball sub, which Martin says has developed its own loyal following. I predict that the Jaybird chopped salad, featuring a romaine-iceberg blend festooned with a smorgasbord of toppings including chickpeas, bacon, celery (a highly underrated salad topping in my book), feta, egg, cucumber and tomatoes, will soon inspire its own fan club.
To finish, choose from two rotating desserts, like a double chocolate layer cake or baklava cheesecake, which is airier than New York cheesecake and finished with caramel. In lieu of dessert, I’ve found myself gravitating towards another square or two of pizza, especially sweet-leaning ones such as Gettin’ Figgy With It, a “pizza of the moment” fall special with roasted butternut squash, prosciutto and balsamic-fig jam. Of course, this ultimately means sacrificing some of my leftovers and planning my return visit sooner than expected.
The story above is from our January/February 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
