Backyard Bird, a “chicken & donuts” restaurant also serving beer and wine, officially opened its doors in early 2020 after operating as a popular food trailer for two years.  The first non fast food chain in the charming town of Timnath, Colorado, Backyard Bird is owned and operated by a local husband and wife team, Matt and Nicole Smith.

 

“Backyard Bird's chicken is never frozen, natural, cage free,  antibiotic/steroid/hormone free chicken,” says chef Matt.

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Matt, who serves as Backyard Bird’s executive chef working with food at a very young age. He obtained his undergrad in business management knowing, he would one day own and operate his own restaurant. He then honed his craft in Paris where he graduated from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and worked at restaurants in Paris and Spain for two years following his graduation. After returning to Southern California, Matt married his soulmate and life partner Nicole in 2005 and continued to work as a sous chef for the next five years.  In 2010, he obtained his first executive chef position at a local restaurant in San Diego, California.

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“Our fried favorite is lemon brined, marinated in yogurt,

twice tossed in organic flour and house crafted spice blend."   

 

Along with Nicole and their children, Matt moved to Colorado in 2015 and was the Executive Chef at a popular Loveland restaurant for five and a half years. He also assisted in opening a new restaurant in Fort Collins as a designer, chef, and staff manager.  Matt helped solidify  the farm to table concept in Northern Colorado and developed close relationships with many local farmers. 

 

Nicole’s background is in hotel sales and catering and she has a passion and gift for design and woodworking. Nicole created the Backyard Bird food trailer in 2017 and has done much of the carpentry and woodwork in the food trailer and the restaurant.  Both Nicole and Matt are active members of the local community and enjoy raising their children in Timnath. 

 

Together, Matt and Nicole have stayed on the cutting edge of trends in the foodservice industry and have had a longtime goal of opening their own restaurant.  They were thrilled to find the perfect location for the Backyard Bird restaurant in their incredible community and to obtain the first liquor license in Timnath.  Their vision for Backyard Bird whether at the restaurant or on the food trailer, has been to offer a simple and tasty menu of chicken and donuts that would become the talk of the town. 

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