“The most exciting thing was taking down the brown paper from the windows,” Belles Hot Chicken CEO Joss Jenner-Leuthart tells Broadsheet. “It’s been up for way, way, way too long.”
After three years, the CBD corner diner has been renovated into a cosy 85-seat venue with a retro look – chequered lino, neon chrome and vintage laminate ooze nostalgia. The brief was to create something that “felt local” but also unique. It will open on Wednesday June 19.
“If you’ve had our chicken in other states you know how good it is; the challenge is always living up to the hype,” he says. The menu offers Belles’s signature fried chicken: tenders or wings prepped to your choice of heat and a side (fries, slaw, iceberg edge, potatoes and gravy or mac’n’cheese). Chicken and waffles available on weekends for lunch. All meals are served moist towelettes, so you’re encouraged to get messy – and then clean up.
There are also sandwiches, including a new Quinby’s hot honey sandwich, which is debuting in Adelaide before joining menus across New South Wales and Victoria. (“It’s a couple of our tenders doused in Quinby’s hot honey and finished off with slaw.,” says Jenner-Leuthart.)
The beverage menu includes boozy slushies, spiked coolers (lemonade, peach iced tea and Arnold palmers), and a couple of beer taps pouring brews by Pirate Life. The fridges are stocked with Sydney-based booze brands, including beers by Wayward, Yulli’s and Young Henrys; seltzers by Cantina OK and Mode; and a rakija and tonic by DNA Distillery.
Belles Hot Chicken
14 Hindley Street, Adelaide
No phone
Hours:
Wed to Sun 11.30am–9pm
Belles is opening from Wednesday to Sunday for the first two months and then will open seven days a week after that.
