| Belles Hot Chicken | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 2014 |
| Owner(s) | Joss Jenner-Leuthart |
| Previous owner(s) | Morgan McGlone |
| Food type | Southern Diner |
| Street address | 150 Gertrude St, Fitzroy VIC 3065 |
| Other locations | five other locations |
| Website | https://belleshotchicken.com/ |
Belles Hot Chicken, aka 'Belles' is a chain-restaurant in Australia. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The restaurant is known for southern-style fried chicken.
The hot spice mix of the store is flour based and mostly relies on just smoked paprika and cayenne pepper. [5] The chicken is hormone-free and submerged in brine a day in advance. [6] Plain white bread is served underneath the chicken. [7] Sauces are available including a Belle's branded ranch dressing, as well as a blue-cheese based sauce. [8] Other dishes served include mac and cheese, potato salad, braised-beans in ham hocks, hot fish, and soft-serve ice cream. [9] [3]
Drinks served include beer; Melbourne Bitter, Resch's, Pabst Tallboys, and Kronenbourg; another drink is rye-whisky with pickle juice. [10]
The interior of the restaurant's Gertrude Street store is designed to resemble a Nashville diner, with a big stool-studded bar. [3]
The chain was founded by three people, Miranda Campbell, Reno Pontonio and Morgan McGlone, a former model minder for Lily Cole; who later trained as a chef. McGlone became interested in the fried chicken after living in Nashville, Tennessee. After returning to Australia he partnered with Miranda Campbell who took over a store on Gertrude St Melbourne's suburb of Fitzroy under the name 'Belle's Diner'; [11] and rebranded it as 'Belles Hot Chicken'. Under its previous ownership the store had focused on American food by was not well received. [12]
After taking over and rebranding the store in 2014 the new owners refocused its menu. [13] Following these changes the store received a positive review in The Age. [14] The store then began to grow a cult following for its combination of serving spicy-fried chicken and natural wine. [15]
The next year the pair expanded the chain to a pop-up location in Barangaroo, NSW, and in 2016 the location was made permanent. [16] [17] At some point in the years after the chain's establishment, Jenner-Leuthart bought out McGlone's stake in the franchise. [18] After its NSW pop-ups, the franchise looked to open a flagship location in that state, eventually settling on its location at Circular Quay. [19] [4]
As of July 2023 the store has six actively trading locations three each in both of Australia's largest states. In Victoria its locations are in Fitzroy, Docklands, and the Melbourne CBD; in NSW its locations are at Tramsheds, Barangaroo, and Circular Quay. The franchise plans to expand to the Adelaide CBD. [20]
The chain has generally been well received in Australia, after its first rebranding. It has received positive reviews in The Age, as well as in the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Herald Sun.
In his 2014 review for the Herald Sun, food reviewer Simon Plant gave it a favourable review, writing: "Belle’s Hot Chicken is more fun than you can poke a drumstick at. Next best thing to being in Nashville." [21] Simone Egger writing for The Age said: "I went as far as the brick-red coloured "Hot", which slapped me in the face, but had me going back for more". [3] In her review for the Sydney Morning Herald, Myffy Rigby said: "To my mind, you can pretty easily skip the leg meat, which doesn't yield the same level of crunch, juiciness and intensity of flavour as the wings, which you should definitely double order". [22]
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Nope. For their hot spice mix, the boys at Belle's mostly rely on just two items — smoked paprika and cayenne pepper — and it's quite a double act. ... Patted dry, the meat is divided into wings, tenders (breast) and dark meat (thigh/drumstick), then coated with a flour-based spice mix.
As for the poultry ... McGlone and Turner favour local hormone-free chickens and prepare them the old-fashioned way: that is, by working a day ahead and submerging the birds in brine.
In true Nashville style, plain white bread squats under every serve, soaking up all the juices.
There are $2 sauces as well (Belle's Ranch Dressing, Belle's Blue Cheese) and house-fermented pickles, .
Our mac and cheese ($5) lacked body while a round of crinkle-cut Old Bay fries ($5) should have been headed off at the pass. But you're bound to want seconds of potato salad, coleslaw and Almost Arnold's amazing beans (braised in ham hocks). ... Southern food is not just about firebirds. Order hot fish at Belle's ($16) and you'll get flathead fillets dunked in buttermilk, rolled in cornmeal and spiced all over. Love it. Even mushrooms ($13) get the deep-heat treatment here.
(it originally opened as Belle's Diner, with a different chef).
Returning to Melbourne, he and Turner were determined to share Nashville's red-hot secret with Melburnians. So they moved into Belle's Diner six weeks back, rebadged it as Belle's Hot Chicken ... and haven't looked back.
Bringing the idea back to Australia, McGlone opened in Melbourne and soon found he had a cult following for that unlikely combination of spicy-fried chicken and natural wine that should absolutely not work, but absolutely does.
Jenner-Leuthart, who says he "bought out Morgy (Belles co-founder Morgan McGlone)", is confident he'll sign on the Surry Hills property before the end of the month and open in late 2022. If that site falls over, he wants to find another in the area.
VERDICT: Belle's Hot Chicken is more fun than you can poke a drumstick at. Next best thing to being in Nashville.
