One Great Dish Washington D.C.
At Rooster & Owl, a Great Meal Always Begins With Pineapple Buns
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Call them pillowy, cloudlike or buoyant, but however you choose to describe the eminent lightness of liltingly sweet pineapple buns, you won’t soon forget them. Virginia-born chef Yuan Tang of Rooster & Owl in D.C. and Ellie Bird in Falls Church, Va., says that he ate more than his fair share while growing up in Hong Kong.
“There’s a bakery at the bottom of the apartment that I lived in,” he remembers of his years in Asia, between the ages of two and 12. “We would just walk down in the afternoon or in the morning. Sometimes when they come out fresh is when we’d try to get it. That was a really, really special treat.”
Now, as a grown-up chef with a Michelin star at Rooster & Owl, the former federal auditor does some quick math to arrive at the number of the buns he’s served in the restaurant’s six-and-a-half years: 200,018. Add in the breadbasket at Ellie Bird, which opened in 2023, and he says it’s “a safe estimate” that he has filled mouths with more than 300,000 of the fluffy, yeasted wonders.
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At Rooster & Owl, diners begin their tasting menu with a single bun, though Tang says many request an extra one — or two. “It gives you a good idea of what’s to come, because it comes across as simple, but it’s really complex. It has a lot of layers of flavor and a lot of different textures,” he explains. The Maldon salt-topped buns are accompanied by housemade cultured butter that’s finished with scallion oil.
Tang is not a baker, and he says he conceived the recipe with the help of online research, including YouTube videos. He refined the buns through pop-ups that led up to the debut of Rooster & Owl. A roux of flour and milk is responsible for the milk bread’s silky texture, he says. After a three-hour proof, the pastry team responsible for crafting the buns shapes them and place them in a pan in the style of Parker House rolls, meaning that the buns are attached to each other.
“That was kind of symbolic for us, because we wanted to give people the opportunity to break the bread,” Tang says.
I’ve always made the joke that you’re not here to buy the meal. You’re here to pay $125 for the bread.— Yuan Tang, chef-owner of Rooster & Owl
Despite their name, pineapple buns include no pineapple in their recipe. The name comes from the crackly texture that crowns each bun. Tang explains that the shiny top is created with butter and sugar, as well as an egg wash.
Diners in the suburbs aren’t left out. At the more casual Ellie Bird, Tang’s team offers a breadbasket that pairs the buns with lovably oily focaccia and softened miso butter. A basket is $9 for two people and $16 for four. But for the devoted fans who have tried to order a dozen or more at a time (the process is too involved to make this a reality), this could be considered a pittance.
“I’ve always made the joke that you know you’re not here to buy the meal. You’re here to pay $125 for the bread,” smiles Tang of the prix-fixe at Rooster & Owl. And it’s worth every penny.
