Courtesy / Barbara Peacock
A Dizzy Birds mural is part of the new restaurant’s décor.
April 24, 2019
New family restaurant spins dizzy birds for Biddeford market
Courtesy / Barbara Peacock
An exhibition kitchen, with the rotisserie on the left, is a primary feature of the new Biddeford restaurant Dizzy Birds.
The owners of a new restaurant in downtown Biddeford are betting on that city’s up-and-coming cachet as well as a new spin centered on chicken rotisserie.
Tom and Barb Peacock opened Dizzy Birds in March, at 65 Main St., to offer lunch and dinner and a catering service. As a family restaurant, they employ their three sons and a nephew.
“The rotisserie we purchased has two sides, and you can at an one time be cooking upward of 50 birds at one time,” said Tom Peacock. In addition to chicken, they also cook prime rib and leg of lamb on the rotisserie.
“It’s like going to the ocean and watching the ocean go back and forth. It’s a pretty dynamic presentation,” he added.
Food service background
Tom grew up in Massachusetts and was executive chef with Harvard Law School for a number of years, then senior operations manager and project manager with Sodexo, the global food services company headquartered in Paris. Projects with Sodexo included opening the patient food service and retail dining pavilion at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
“If you told me 30 years ago that my biggest influence as a chef would come from food service instead of traditional restaurants, I would have said you’re crazy,” he said.
But Dizzy Birds is “heavily influenced” by that experience, he said. For example, the restaurant features an open exhibition kitchen with the rotisserie in the background, and the dining service is set up similar to a cafeteria.
Barbara is a commercial and advertising photographer. Corporate clients include Arm & Hammer and Disney; editorial clients include People and Newsweek.
Barbara’s family has vacationed in southern coastal Maine for generations. She and Tom continued to do so, and in August 2016, the couple moved to Portland.
“I came up here expecting, being a foodie and going to a food city, that work would be anywhere I wanted,” he said.
He couldn’t find exactly what he wanted, so he worked with a catering company while developing a concept and business plan for his own restaurant.
Courtesy / Barbara Peacock
From left, manager Cameron Peacock, co-owner Tom Peacock, chef d’cuisine Kevin Moran, and sous chef Connor Peacock.
In love with the chicken
The idea of chicken rotisserie came about because that’s what he enjoyed making for social gatherings he and his wife had.
“In our leisure time, Tom was turning chickens on his rotisserie and I’d make some sides, and everyone was in love with the chicken,” said Barbara.
They looked for suitable space in Portland but couldn’t find it.
“Then people said, ‘If you look in Saco or Biddeford, you might be able to find a bigger space, and it would be more affordable,’” Barbara continued. “Plus, everyone was telling us Biddeford is a happening place, that it’s the new Portland.”
Last August, they signed a five-year lease, with the Portland property management company Medley Properties, for two units of retail space in Biddeford. Renovation included engineering an opening between the two units, to make two separate but connected rooms.
One room has 35 seats that are a combination of countertop, high-top and traditional seating. The adjacent room, which the couple refers to as a “servery,” is a “cafeteria interpretation” of quick and casual dining, Tom Peacock said. Customers review the menu and order at the counter. The production kitchen with the rotisserie convection oven, range and fryer are viewable behind the counter. Seating in the servery includes counters that run along the windows overlooking Main Street. Décor includes a 15-foot by 12-foot mural by one of their sons, an art student. Another son painted two five-foot by five-foot canvases. A third son is the general manager. Barbara is the baker and marketing director. A nephew is chef d’cuisine.
Investment for fit-out and equipment was close to $200,000.
The equipment includes a vacuum tumbler. Meat and liquid marinade are placed in a receptacle and the machine removes the air. The resulting negative pressure draws the flavoring from the marinade into the meat more deeply and quickly than a regular marinade.
“We’re getting the equivalent of a 24-hour dry rub cure in about 20 minutes with the vacuum tumbler,” explained Tom.
Then, the slow-roast, open-fire effect of the rotisserie, with the meat essentially self-basting, provides a richer flavor, he said. The family uses organic meats.
“One of our slogans is that we prepare slow food and we serve it quickly,” he added.
Marketing and branding
Marketing began with Instagram and Facebook postings, with “coming soon” announcements and food photos, said Barbara. Before opening, their feeds had 400 followers. Now that’s up to 1, 200. Now they’re developing paid advertising and have hired a branding team. They’ve been working with Anchour, a design and branding firm in Lewiston.
Courtesy / Barbara Peacock
Rotisserie chicken and sides have proven popular, drawing as many as 250 customers per day.
“That was the first thing we did, because I felt that to have the brand awareness was critical to what we were doing,” said Tom.
Now they’re working with Kast Inc., a Portland branding firm, to work out further marketing strategies.
After an open house mid-March, the restaurant opened in late March.
The couple said the social media build-up, along with things like “coming soon” signs on the windows, generated a lot of awareness that became apparent as soon as they opened.
“The sheer number of people we’re feeding daily is significant,” said Tom. “We’re serving as many as 225 to 250 people per day.”
Further plans include implementing a catering program, as well as establishing a pick-up location in Portland. The idea is to allow people in Portland to place their orders online or by phone, then pick it up at a central location, which is expected to be on Spring Street. This segment of the business has been dubbed the “Chicken Run.”
Also, Barbara is baking small pecan pies, based on a recipe by her mother that everyone loved, with a percentage of the proceeds to go to Maine chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, in her mother’s honor.
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