We take a closer look at the increasingly creative snacks venues around the country are serving up to impress their guests.
By Sue Fea
Down in the far south where a pub’s a pub, the boys still like some good hearty fare with their beer, while at the country’s upmarket city bars the customers are looking for a bit more panache and flair.
Southern-based Cook Brothers, which recently opened its first Auckland bar, Fort St Union, is aiming for a good mix of both, with a strong focus on story and localisation.
Cook Brothers concept manager Andrew Roborgh has travelled the world researching bar trends. He says customers like to buy into that local story, not only with beer and wine but food also.
“People really want to understand where food has come from whether it’s homemade or specialty cheese from goats’ milk at the farm down the road...it has to have a story.”
Whether it’s in their iconic Otago University pub The Cook or more upmarket Alibi in Dunedin, Searle Lane & Social in Queenstown, their Velvet Burger outlets or Fort St in Auckland, Cook Brothers aims to make good food simple and simple food good.
They serve pizzas but they’re smaller and square, not round, with a big focus on taste, spice and use of their menus’ ‘trademark’ world famous rotisserie chicken.
Cook Brothers’ fish and chips are delivered with a unique twist of class – beer battered fries and fresh blue cod delivered on a plate wrapped in a rolled cone of newspaper, garnished with salad and lemon.
“It adds colour, variety and localness – it can inject that story,” says Roborgh. “You’re hitting people’s subconscious, they generally sit up and look more and more excited – it’s that attention to detail. Food can be a key point of difference over other bars – it’s becoming the star of the show.”
More and more bars and restaurants are bringing the chef out from the back kitchen to centre stage, a demand driven by the huge popularity in TV foodie shots.
“Look at a kitchen anywhere, there’s a real theatre around the food, it’s like camping – you stare at the fire – people get a real trust from that and can literally see food being prepared and talk to the chef,” says Roborgh.
Bars need to compete to draw people out from behind their plasma flat screen TVs and comfy couches where they can drink supermarket-bought Heineken for $1.50 a glass, instead of paying $9 in a bar. A “cold beer and a bit of a smile” just doesn’t cut it anymore, says Roborgh. “It just means hospitality people have to work harder.”
So they’ve taken the good old rotisserie chicken, added their own flavoursome twist, dressed it up with their marinade, added the “story” about their chicken cooker who they flew in from half way around the world....and have a recipe for success.
But Roborgh stresses the story will get you nowhere without great service, great food and chefs who’re passionate for the cause. It’s also vital to keep prices down and the menu simple and consistent.
Bar patrons now expect quality and the Rugby World Cup will be no exception. Roborgh concedes it’ll be a challenge but Friday night’s are massive anyway, so he’s picking it’ll just be Friday night every night, with extra staff, more frequent stock rotation and a lot of help from trusty regular suppliers.
Cook Brothers group executive chef Scott Jerkovich is planning a strong British theme, especially on his Dunedin bar menus for the Cup. Down in Dunedin there’ll be a lot of English, Scottish and Irish supporters so he’ll be aiming for a Kiwi twist on some of their traditional foods, with a similar pitch in Auckland.
He’s thinking of serving some good Irish spud with a Kiwi twist offered in ‘a welcoming way’ served with a nice protein or meat. Dunedin already has a strong Scottish influence so he’ll be capitalising on that.
“Generally our northern joke is anything on mash in the South Island will sell on the menu.”
Jerkovich says people eat with their eyes so even the garnish is important – make bar foods easy to pick up, but attractive.
Salt and peppered calamari or calamari rings are a must but he puts his own twist on these using one part semolina, a half part each of cornflour and normal flour, sea salt and cracked pepper. Coat well and shallow or deep fry 45 to 50 seconds then serve with a sweet chilli combination mayonnaise.
Jerkovich reckons 90 per cent of people who feel they’re becoming a bit boozed will usually opt for fries or wedges to soak up the alcohol. In Queenstown, a renowned party town, with more than 90 liquor licences in the central business area alone, there’s a strong focus on host responsibility.
Good Group has five bars in central Queenstown, two in Wanaka, two in Christchurch and New Orleans pub in nearby Arrowtown. General manager Sarah Stacey says her bar managers are empowered to buy pizzas from an adjacent pizza outlet if they see things ‘’loosen up” and spread the food around the crowd.
At Barmuda they offer free cheeseboard and antipasto platters from 5 until 7pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays just to line people’s stomachs. Pizzas can be ordered from a few doors away and delivered to their bars, while antipasto platters, cheese boards and breads are on their menus, along with paninis.
Good Bars can also tap into the company’s Botswana Butchery restaurant kitchen for upmarket options. When people pay $20 a glass for a Central Otago pinot noir they expect cheeses of the same standard so it’s a great chance to feature local produce like Gibbston Valley cheeses.
At Botswana Butchery the menu is set up so people can enjoy light foods from the menu such as blue cheese and pear salad, Bluff oysters, Spanish whitebait, scallops, and side dishes such as potato croquettes with a glass of wine.
At the opposite end of the spectrum over in Arrowtown, the New Orleans pub offers hearty Kiwi kai, wedges, blue cod and chips, and the roast of the day in the bar.
This kind of hearty fare is still washing down a treat at many a pub in the south. Frankton Ale House owner Paddy Sugrue also owns Cromwell’s Victoria Hotel, in the heart of Central Otago where lambs fry and bacon has been a bar staple since 1976.
“We took it off the menu for a while and everyone kicked up a real stink, so we put it back on. It’s more of an English-style pub menu, it’s very Kiwiana in Cromwell where there are a lot of cockys (farmers) and that’s what they eat.”
He offers “good stodgy food” such as squid rings, fish bites, wedges and chips dressed up with a little aioli, sweet chilli and tomato sauce, mini spring rolls and the staple chicken tenders and garlic bread.
An hour away in Wanaka, Sugrue’s brother Bernie, a baker, is known for his gourmet pub pies served up at McGregor on Reece and also Queenstown’s Pig & Whistle Pub. Bernie’s bakery pumps out 50,000 pies a week and his bar’s takeaway section puts out 400kg of deep fried chips and a quarter tonne of blue cod a month.
Sugrue says he won’t be altering his Kiwi bar-style bangers and mash, pea pie and pud for the Rugby World Cup. Motor-home holidaymakers already hear about his pub food half way up the South Island’s West Coast and he’s sure his signature Scottish mutton pies will do a roaring trade with British rugby fans, along with blue cod minted topped pies, lambs fry kumara topped pies and chilli con carne pies.
“The humble pie has not gone off the bar menu – the only thing I can say, as a baker, is don’t microwave them – heat them in the oven for 15 minutes so they’re nice and crispy.”
In the heart of Wellington at The Apartment, head chef Tza Drake, new to the job, is looking to put his stamp on New York food. Drake’s authentic buffalo wings in a paprika marinade served with celery and blue cheese sauce follow that New York theme.
Sliders (marinated grilled meats) are also likely to feature along with platters of dill pickles, smoked salmon, pastrami, cream cheese bagels and plenty of quality cheeses sourced from Ontray’s in Petone.
As a cocktail bar entertaining a more sophisticated market Drake needs to keep his bar food offering “a little more dainty”. Platters come hot and cold, featuring everything from prawn cutlets and seared calamari to feta-stuffed pepper jus, grilled kranksy, olive bruschetta and breaded camembert. “We offer more food to share, they’re not sinking jugs.”
So when the Cup crowds descend he’s thinking of offering specially-themed platters, maybe an All Black or World Cup platter featuring food from different Cup countries.
The Apartment co-manager Liam Boyle says there are so many top class restaurants surrounding his bar that they don’t try to compete. Fries come with garlic aioli and parmesan mayonnaise, bowls of ginger and honey roasted chicken wings and smoked feta and basil potato cakes are also popular. They even serve a few sweets for the ladies, like crème brulee and spiced apricot with prunes and brandy served with ice cream.
Auckland’s Sudima Airport Hotel is all geared up and ready for the Cup crowds expecting some “pretty hefty appetites” with a menu to suit. Food and Beverage manager Ian Bannan says their gourmet beef burger with caramelised onions, smokey bacon, tomatoes, blue cheese and served in a homemade rustic roll has been getting rave reviews.
Toasted and plain club sandwiches, beef lasagne with grilled mozzarella and cream, butter chicken, prawn cocktails presented on a large rectangular plate with scampi and antipasto platters, all feature on their Night Owl Menu.
Bannan says executive chef Rohan Samaratunga places a huge emphasis on creativity, presentation and value for money. He’s even ready for the rugby crowds breakfasts with a make your own waffles option expected to be popular.
