BRIEF BUT BANGIN'

WHILE MANY PUBS TRY TO APPEAL TO A WIDE VARIETY OF PATRONS WITH HEFTY MENUS, SOME PUBS ARE REVERTING TO COMPACT MENUS, VANESSA CAVASINNI REPORTS.

At The Flying Cock in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, most of the late-night action happens upstairs on the pub’s first floor, with the ground floor dedicated to the venue’s more relaxed bistro offering. In mid-2017, the bistro was overhauled – both through menu and branding – as The Coop.

The Coop in Fortitude Valley offers a chicken-led menu

As part of the overhaul, The Coop’s menu got rid of the standard steak and salad pub fare, and created a more compact menu that focused on speciality fried chicken, other chicken dishes, and the appropriate sides.

Adam Hunter of The Coop Bistro and Flying Cock, said the drastic change was in response to quality F&B operators surrounding the venue, and the need to specialise its offering.

The menu focuses on buttermilk fried chicken pieces

“We went in with the mantra that we wanted to be known as ‘Brisbane’s Finest Chicken Pub’. We identified that there had been a real shift in the casual dining space over the past two years with a lot of operators shifting towards a concise offering and building a strong identity around what they were doing well.”

The menu focuses on buttermilk fried chicken pieces, wings in 500g or one kilo servings, burgers and sides such as corn, fries and onion rings. It also features a classic chicken parmigiana and schnitzel.

Fried chicken burger with pickled pawpaw, iceberg lettuce, cheese and nori mayonnaise

One of the contributing factors for the move to a more concise menu was the kitchen size and layout.

“The design of the building means our main kitchen is both small and open – visible to patrons from the bar. At its busiest, we’d never have any more than four chefs on at any one time, and operate with two fryers, a large oven, grill cooktop and several prep stations,” explains Hunter.

A second prep kitchen is located directly below the main kitchen, primarily used for prep throughout the week, for tasks such as making all of The Coop’s sauces in-house and prepping large amounts of slaw. A dumbwaiter moves stock and produce between the two levels to boost the efficiency of the two kitchens.

COMING BACK FOR MORE

With such a concise menu, was there ever a worry that after the novelty of the menu wore off, that repeat business would dry up?

“Never. We always felt confident that if our menu was concise, strong and at a competitive price point, then we’d be able to focus on building repeat customers and this has shown itself to be self-evident.

Fried chicken BLAT taco

“The benefit of having a smaller menu is that it takes a lot of the decision-making stress out of the ordering process.”

Quality is the essential factor to repeat business of a pub with a concise venue. The Coop’s fried chicken is immensely popular, whether being sold in a ‘Big Box’ offering with chips and sides, or as a burger. Hunter puts this down to the quality ingredients, preparation and points of difference in the offering.

“In terms of flavour, our fried chicken tastes different to your classic American fried chicken because of the focus on boneless pieces – tenders, breasts, karaage – and the tapioca flour we use as part of the process. The fact that our chicken is also gluten free has been well received by customers with gluten intolerance.”

Chargrilled corn with parmesan and miso mayonnaise

Daily deals also keep patrons coming back for more. The Coop offers 2-4-1 Parmys on Wednesdays, $3 tacos on Thursdays – which they sell upwards of 500 per week – and a $10 burger-and-fries special on Fridays. Recently a Saturday special of ‘all-you-can-eat’ nuggets, fries and slaw for $20 was introduced, which brought in a wave of new business outside of the venue’s core demographic – including families.

Initially, moving away from pub staples such as steak was a risky thing to do, but one that has paid off for The Coop.

Japanese-style karaage

“We realised that we needed to let go of the steak, which is hard to do when you’re pushing yourself as a pub. But the fact of the matter is that it didn’t sell, and in the climate of our current dining scene, we’re just not a destination venue for steak. It was better for us to accept that fact, move forward and shift towards making everything else at The Coop as strong as it could be.”

WE ALWAYS FELT CONFIDENT THAT IF OUR MENU WAS CONCISE, STRONG AND AT A COMPETITIVE PRICE POINT, THEN WE’D BE ABLE TO FOCUS ON BUILDING REPEAT CUSTOMERS, AND THIS HAS SHOWN ITSELF TO BE SELF-EVIDENT.”

The decision has worked in the pub’s favour, with The Coop now seen as a great local dining option, as well as a destination venue for any lover of fried chicken. The Coop, and Flying Cock in general, has benefitted from a concise and specialised menu.

“There’s nothing worse than poring over an overly-long menu that does everything for the sake of doing everything, and spending an unnecessary amount of time deciding on what you want to eat. When you try to please everyone, you appeal to no-one.”