Misery Loves Co. opens sister restaurant in Winooski, Onion City Chicken & Oyster

WINOOSKI – The owners of a popular restaurant in Winooski have opened a sister restaurant that puts such an emphasis on chicken and oysters that those two foods are in the new eatery’s name.

What is the place?

Laura Wade and Aaron Josinsky, co-owners of Misery Loves Co. on the Winooski traffic oval, opened a second restaurant a few steps away on Aug. 26. Dubbed Onion City Chicken & Oyster, the new space, not surprisingly, specializes in Southern fried chicken and raw oysters. The eatery is in the location that most recently housed El Cortijo Taqueria.

The fried chicken comes as a two-piece dinner, a sharable half-bird that arrives in a bucket, a whole bird or a “bag of bones” consisting of wings, backs and necks. Accompanying side dishes such as buttermilk biscuits, collard greens and succotash keep the Southern comfort-food vibe going.

Wade said the varieties of oysters change daily; on Sept. 23, the oyster menu included options from Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Prince Edward Island. Diners can mix and match the varieties in plates of three, six or 12 oysters, according to Wade, giving them the chance to compare flavors and brininess.

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The menu at Onion City includes regular-folk food such as hot dogs, tater tots and lobster rolls. Wade said she and Josinsky wanted more than just bespoke cocktails, so they focused on classics such as Gibsons and whiskey sours, with the latter having been inspired by one at the now defunct Bove’s Café in Burlington that left an impression on Wade.

What’s the story behind it?

The identity of Misery Loves Co. has been in flux since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. The restaurant shut down for a time, then converted into a market where customers could bring home takeout food, heat-at-home meals and ingredients to make their own meals. Misery Loves Co. resumed its previous role as a sit-down eatery July 29 but only for breakfast, brunch and lunch, clearing the dinnertime hours — and much of the previous menu — for Onion City Chicken & Oyster.

Wade and Josinsky could have combined the daytime vibe they’ve established at Misery Loves Co. with the nighttime hours of Onion City Chicken & Oyster in one convenient space.

“My mother pointed that out to me, too,” Wade said, laughing. “It really made sense to separate them out and create really clear identities.”

Wade said she and Josinsky, her husband, walked into the former El Cortijo space and he immediately said “chicken and oysters,” as if the space spoke to him about the concept they should bring there. Onion City Chicken & Oyster has a bit of a French-bistro feel to it, or maybe more of a New Orleans patina with its high ceilings, checkerboard tablecloths and menu with a Southern and seafood flair.

Wade said they’re aiming for a feeling of nostalgia at Onion City Chicken & Oyster, what she called “the pain of returning home” but with the culinary pleasures that often go with that.

Hours and location

Onion City Chicken & Oyster, 3 E. Allen St., Winooski. 5-10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, with plans to open Sundays in mid-October. (802) 540-8489, www.mlcvt.com/occo/

Misery Loves Co., 46 Main St., Winooski. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday-Saturday for kitchen, until 6 p.m. for market. (802) 497-3989, www.mlcvt.com

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.