Liz Biro: Super cool fried chicken coming to Mass Ave.

The people who brought you Mass Ave. hot spot Bakersfield are getting ready to launch what sounds like an equally cool fried chicken place in the same neighborhood.

The Eagle will land in July somewhere on 300 block of Massachusetts Avenue, close to Bakersfield, co-owner Joe Lanni said.

It will be the second location for The Eagle. The first restaurant opened in Cincinnati in late 2012 and has earned positive reviews. Cincinnati Magazine described the chicken's "crisp, peppery crust" as "anything but demure, and once you're hooked, it's not a taste you'll soon forget."

Free-range, all-natural, hormone-free chicken from Amish farms in Ohio is marinated in a "lemony, herby" brine before hitting breading with "just a little kick," Lanni said.

"I wouldn't call it 'hot chicken,' but it's got a little more punch than regular chicken."

The bird is served with spicy honey in an urban-cool dining room splashed with farmhouse décor, 100 different beers and a blues/rock/Muscle Shoals soundtrack. Housemade bloody mary mix; specialty cocktails; decent affordable wines; and fancy Veuve Cliquot Brut also make the drinks list.

Snacks and Southern side dishes change seasonally. Some of what's on the Cincy menu will phase out by the time the 100-150-seat The Eagle opens in Indy. But standards include spicy brown sugar-crusted bacon and cast-iron crocks of marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole and cornbread with maple butter. This spring brings biscuits and blackened shrimp po' boy sandwiches.

The Eagle name honors the logo on the Cincy location's former tenant, a U.S. post office. "It's fried chicken. It's Southern. It's American. The eagle is a symbol of all that," Lanni said.

Lanni, his brother John Lanni and business partner Alex Blust make up The Eagle and Bakersfield's parent company, Thunderdome Restaurant Group. The trio have been considering leasing part of Mass Ave.'s Stout's Shoes for The Eagle. The shoe store owns 11,000 square feet, but needs just 5,000, Stout's co-owner Brad Stout said.

Stout also owns the building where Bakersfield is located.

A location had not been settled upon as of Monday. If The Eagle doesn't end up in Stout's, the shoe store's owners will work to attract another restaurant, Stout said. The store's proximity to Downtown office workers seeking lunchtime options and the continued residential growth in and around Mass Ave. indicate success for another restaurant there, Stout said.

Meantime, Bakersfield hums along. Seventy seats added outside last summer are full on warm evenings. A few new tacos roll out in May, Lanni said. Look for bistec (steak) hugging marinated, grilled short rib with smoky chipotle slaw and cilantro; braised pork belly done sweet-spicy pastor-style; and a vegetarian taco with roasted poblano chilies, mushrooms, bell pepper and onions, all sautéed with garlic and garnished with cotija cheese and kale slaw.

Call Liz Biro at (317) 444-6264. Follow her on Twitter @lizbiro, Instagram @lizbirodish and Facebook. Email her at liz.biro@indystar.com.