Our story in New Braunfels
Our mission is simple, to serve you the most delicious chicken and cocktails that you have ever had in a warm atmosphere of extreme southern hospitality.
The Birdhouse | Our Story
Who are the owners?
Our story in New Braunfels started with a leap of faith.
On August 4, 2015, we closed on a little-known restaurant in Gruene called The River House Tea Room. At the time, I was finishing culinary school after walking away from a 10-year career in advertising. Hospitality had always been in my blood, from working in fine dining restaurants throughout my teens and early twenties to finally deciding to chase my passion full time.
Cristina and I had visited Gruene for years and had never even heard of The River House Tea Room. That intrigued me. I saw potential: a hidden gem ready for a new story.
So we did something a little crazy.
We packed up our lives, left behind friends, family, and every professional connection we had, and moved to New Braunfels with our eight-month-old daughter, Lyla, knowing absolutely no one. We weren’t just buying a restaurant. We were planting roots in a new community.
The River House beginnings
We dropped “Tea Room” and relaunched as The River House, Southern Scratch Kitchen, focusing on seasonal ingredients, thoughtful wines, and chef-driven experiences like six-course wine dinners and our wildly popular “Supper & A Song” dinner concert series.
It was creative. It was vibrant. It was special.
And then COVID hit.
During that uncertain season, something rose to the top: our Sunday Night Fried Chicken Dinners. Family-style, shared around tables full of laughter. Our guests loved it. Our staff loved it. We felt the joy in it. I will never forget bringing dinner to a group and overhearing a father say to his table of family and friends, “Wow, when was the last time you sat down at a table and had a fried chicken dinner like this?” It was then that I realized we possibly had a little lightning in a bottle.
The Birdhouse takes flight
One afternoon over margaritas, Cristina and I asked, “What if we built a restaurant around that feeling? Fried Chicken. Cocktails. Warm hospitality. And we will make it fun.”
That conversation changed everything.
On December 31, 2023, we closed The River House. In May 2024, The Birdhouse: Fancy Chicken & Fine Cocktails opened in the same location, built from everything we had learned and everything we believed in.
Today, The Birdhouse is known for bold flavors, an elevated cocktail program, warm hospitality, and our fried chicken, honored in 2025 with the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung Reader’s Choice Award for Best Fried Chicken.
Faith, family, and extreme hospitality
This community of New Braunfels welcomed us when we were new and unknown, carried us through uncertainty, and continues to show up for us week after week. We are deeply grateful.
The Birdhouse represents our faith, family, long nights, hard lessons, second chances and our unwavering commitment to extreme hospitality. We believe we’ve built something special here, and we hope you feel it the moment you walk through our doors.
We look forward to serving you.
Cheers,
Ross, Cristina & Lyla Wilkinson
