Neighborhood Restaurant Group owner Michael Babin asked Birch & Barley chef Kyle Bailey to make one to three dipping sauces for their new fried chicken and doughnut spot GBD (Golden Brown Delicious). Instead, Bailey came back with 15. “I brought it out on a tray—boom—slammed it down, and I was like, ‘Welcome to saucetown,’” he says. Now you can order “saucetown”—all nine of the sauces that made the final menu. The full flight is $6. Individual sauces are 65 cents.
1. Blooch
Short for blue cheese
2. Mumbo Sauce
Bailey reverse-engineered D.C.’s signature sauce, which he often gets at Yum’s II Carryout in Logan Circle. His version has ketchup, sugar, distilled white vinegar, Frank’s RedHot, Tabasco, and Spanish paprika.
3. Jerk Sauce
Inspired by Bailey’s stint as a cook in the Bahamas in 2002, this sauce has at least 15 ingredients, including spices like cayenne, garlic, thyme, nutmeg, and sage.
4. Frankenbutter
Buffalo sauce with Frank’s RedHot sauce and butter; it’s Bailey’s personal favorite.
5. Chipotle BBQ
This ketchup-based barbecue sauce gets added complexity from chipotle, adobo peppers, and honey.
6. Tartar
Duke’s mayo seasoned with capers, cornichons,paprika, preserved lemon, and chopped chives
7. Buttermilk Ranch
Bailey wanted to make a ranch with no preservatives and fewer than six ingredients. This one includes buttermilk, parmesan cheese, parsley, dill, and chive.
8. General Satan’s Sauce
Bailey created this take on General Tso’s for the kitchen staff and waiters to eat while working at Cru in New York in 2005. It’s got heat, but it’s not overpowering.
9. Honey Mustard
Dark clover honey is combined with dijon mustard, a little Duke’s mayo, and some cayenne.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery