Its about 9 AM Tuesday morning and there’s nearly a line out the door.
Its about 9 AM Tuesday morning and there’s nearly a line out the door. A staff of about 8 are running around Early Bird Biscuit Co.‘s newly opened Robinson St. location and people are excited.
Tim Laxton is actively making biscuits as he explains the process.
“The goal for making biscuits, really flaky ones,” he says. “The butter is integrated into the coldest flour and the coldest butter milk. Once they start to bake up it creates a void in the doh that becomes an air pocket.”
Laxton (pictured below), the owner and self-proclaimed “pot washer, floor sweeper, and butter getter” at Early Bird Co. & Bakery, is a former arts major at VCU and compares the process to a sculpture technique, lost-wax.
“Once you start to heat it up, the wax goes away and the sculpture fills that void,” he says with a wide smile. “That creates a flaky biscuit.”
Laxton has lots of reasons to smile, his Richmond biscuit empire started successfully over in Northside in late 2014. The Lakeside spot quickly played host to lines out the door and Laxton said this success became a kind of curse – they were running out of room.
“We got to the point where we would use any flat surface we could find just to make things,” he said about the spot he shuttered only two weeks ago. “Sometimes we would be putting parchment down on our freezer and making pie doh.”
But the new Robinson location offers plenty more room, and if today’s crowd is any sign, they are gonna knead it.
Laxton’s love affair with biscuits started long long ago when he first learned the secrets of butter, buttermilk and flour from his Grandma, Mattie Bell.
“She was a sweet lady,” he said, pointing to the portrait (pictured above) of her that still hangs high above the back wall. “She was known in several counties in Kentucky for her biscuits… Kentucky is good biscuit country for sure.”
But the road to biscuit king wasn’t paved with jelly and butter; Laxton spent a number of years in the corporate world working with Marriot. He said he learned plenty about the hospitality industry there, but before he made the jump to chef, he spent some time cleaning pools in the Middle Peninsula.
“I identified a niche market; people who had second homes [and pools]… I knew there was a need there. It was fun, I got to drive a pick up and wear shorts to work,” he said.
Despite working out in the rural parts of the state, Laxton kept his home in RVA and while he enjoyed his work, he said he failed to ever find a local biscuit that was up to snuff.
Concisely or not, with his history of understanding niche markets, the pool cleaner turned to the rolling pin.
“I knew that was something that could be improved upon, but I had no idea there would be such a market for it,” he said.
Laxton said the Lakeside location was churning out almost 700 biscuits every Saturday at their peak. He also found biscuits offered a scratch for his creative itch.
“I just wanted to tap into something that would be an outlet… but I’ve always loved dabbling in the kitchen and making good comfort food,” he said.
He was also quick to stress the process was less industrial then people might imagine. As stated earlier, Laxton was dexterously kneading and cutting out biscuits as he spoke. He said his process yields about eight biscuits every 10 minutes, start to finish, but its all hand made.
“It’s intentional, I make every single biscuit with a lot of care,” he said.
That care hasn’t gone unnoticed, just ask Lauren Miller and Cotter Starnes (pictured below). Both Richmond residents, the pair showed up during the Lakeside location’s opening week and have gone back every week since.
They both said there was no way they could miss the first day at the new Fan spot.
“We had to come,” said Miller as she joined the clean plate club. “The delicious biscuits [kept me coming back].”
Miller said the Black Pepper Parmesan biscuit was her favorite kind, and Starnes said hers was the Cheddar Chive.
“Anything with cheddar is good, but everything is good [here],” Starnes said. Both customers agreed Laxton’s savory biscuits were incredible, but his general use of flavor combos impressed them even more.
“Today’s flavor is sweet tea and lemon,” Starnes said. “Who would have event thought that would be a biscuit flavor and he did it.”
Meanwhile the line at Early Bird continues to grow, with families, Fan rats, and everything in between filing in to get a taste.
“We’re here to bring friendliness to the Fan district,” Laxton said. “You’re going to get something made with a lot of care.”
Early Bird Biscuit Co. & Bakery is open Tuesday – Friday 7 AM – 2 PM and Saturday 7-noon. They’re closed Sunday and Monday, but their hours might change in the future.
