New York City is lousy with unofficial "mayor of the block" type characters, folks who all the locals know due to some combination of eccentricity, loquacity, and their consistent, net-positive contribution to the quality of life in the neighborhood.
Matt Diaz, who grew up on the Lower East Side and has lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant for most of his adult life, definitely qualifies as such; he now co-owns and operates four very different businesses within sight of each other on Franklin Avenue, between Greene Avenue and Lexington Avenue. Spend even a few minutes with the guy out on the sidewalk, and what feels like a dozen people are going to stop and say hello.
In no way, though, is this an "office" that Diaz actively sought. "I think the block runs me," he told Hell Gate. "I have trouble saying no, and I'm very easily excitable. So, when these opportunities kept popping up, I had no ability to be like, 'I shouldn't do this.'"
For non-locals, here's the Diaz rundown: He opened For All Things Good, the Mexican house-milled masa place, during summer 2020. Then Bar Birba, an Italian pizza-and-wine bar, followed three years later right across the street. He launched Disco Bottles, a wine store a few doors down from Birba, early this year; and as of last weekend, the block is now home to Disco Birdies, a buzzy counter service spot specializing in French fries, fried chicken, and bottles of champagne.
The Disco Birdies food menu is short, fun, and stacked with winners, but the absolute-must here is Diaz's fried chicken sandwich, which he said took "about 7,000 tries" before he got it right. The crisp, buttermilk-battered exterior envelopes almost shockingly juicy meat, with lemon-pepper salt, a little milk powder, and nutritional yeast among the "secret" ingredients. Top it with a bunch of tangy, ranch-like white sauce and a glut of pickles, and you have a sandwich for the ages.
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