Gracious Service and Chicken Biscuits

TALLAHASSEE — The manager at Maple Street Biscuit Company (MSBC) admits chicken biscuits aren’t a novel culinary invention.

“Chicken biscuits are not an alien thing,” said Michael Burden, community leader/manager of Tallahassee’s two MSBC locations, “but ours are made right at the counter in front of our guests. They know the biscuits are fresh, quality and made from scratch. We have something we are proud of.”

MSBC at Killearn opened on May 27, exactly two years after Burden launched Tallahassee’s first MSBC at Florida State University (FSU).

The restaurant doesn’t refer to itself as a chain or franchise, even though there are now 10 MSBC’s across Florida and each share a common menu and hours. The restaurants are referred to as “community stores.”

The founders, Scott Moore and Gus Evans opened the first restaurant in Jacksonville in 2012 with the mission to make a difference and be a part of each community of which they are members.

Burden said each location caters to the unique community it serves. “FSU is quite different than Killearn,” he said with a laugh.

He said to cater to the Killearn’s large neighborhood, MSBC offers more seating and brighter lights and is reaching out to the senior citizen community to determine how to best serve them.

Maple Street operates on four guiding principles: comfort food with a modern twist, gracious service, immaculately clean stores, and sustainable business.

MSBC biscuits are topped with unique concoctions of fresh ingredients such as the Sticky Maple – a flaky biscuit, all-natural fried chicken breast, pecan wood smoked bacon, topped with Bissell Family Farm real maple syrup, and the Garden Bird, which also starts with chicken and biscuit but is topped with an over-easy egg and collard greens splashed with hot sauce. MSBC also offers a decadent house-made vanilla bean waffle with asiago and pecan wood smoked bacon baked in. For those with more will-power, MSBC also serves a lighter fare of salads.

Burden said his staff provides “gracious service” but doesn’t accept tips.

Burden said MSBC’s commitment to sustainability means being prudent as a manager who is promising people jobs. “It means maintaining our controllable costs and making sure the folks on the team are willing to put in some pretty serious work but get a great, awesome family team out of it. We want to make sure we continue to have a place in the community where people can come and get these fresh biscuits and can come and have a job with an awesome team. That’s what sustainability means to us — making sure we keep our promises when it comes to our team and community.”

  Maple Street Biscuit