For Joss Jenner-Leuthart, managing director of Belles Hot Chicken, excellence is about focus.

“We make sure we do our bread and butter really well,” he tells Broadsheet. “We keep in our lane, doing Nashville-style hot chicken, just three cuts, two sandwiches. We want to make sure if we’re doing fried chicken, it’s the best in Australia.”

Jenner-Leuthart is speaking to Broadsheet a month after opening Belles’s new Sydney flagship, a 130-seater in Circular Quay. It’s the first new Belles venue since 2018, and its first ever restaurant-style eatery. The ethos remains the same as it has since founder Morgan McGlone debuted Belles in Melbourne’s Fitzroy in 2014: pairing delicious fried chicken with natural, low-intervention wines. (McGlone has since sold out of the business.) It has the same everyone-is-welcome diner feel found at the original, as well as its canteen at Barangaroo and diner at Tramsheds.

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“At its heart it’s a chicken joint, no fuss, no bullshit, but we’re combining that with the heart and soul of a familiar diner, and the care and attention you get at a restaurant,” says Jenner-Leuthart.

If the location – and its breathtaking view – are new, the menu is the same, including Belles’s signature fried-chicken tenders, thighs and wings in classic flavours of Chicken Salt, Original, Traveller, Hot, Really Hot and Really F**kin’ Hot. There are also Nashville-style chicken sandwiches with sides of slaw, potato and gravy, and mac’n’cheese, as well as share plates for big groups.

Although specialisation is key to Belles’s success, a few dishes will come and go depending on what’s in season. “We don’t want to throw around a lot of things, but we do some seasonal dishes, like maple-butter-fried brussels sprouts and buffalo cauliflower, which is gluten-free and vegan,” says Jenner-Leuthart.

Belles Hot Chicken was an early adopter of natural wine, and this continues to be a focus, with Circular Quay pouring predominantly Australian producers and plenty of natural, low-intervention drops. Belles Original Draught is on tap, whisky and Coke and Margarita mixes are on the slushie machine, and there’s also house-made lemonade and iced tea. Belles is also serving a tinned cocktail of rakija (a Balkan spirit) and tonic, made by Baba’s Place in Marrickville and DNA Distillery.

Each Belles venue has its own personality, but Jenner-Leuthart says there are threads that connect their designs. “We have the booth seating, floor-to-ceiling timber, the vintage tiles for Circular Quay we found at someone’s house in Perth, the reflective chrome ceiling is an evolution from the disco ball in Fitzroy. The venues are all related, the similarities are easy to spot.”

After five years focusing on Belles’s existing eateries, Jenner-Leuthart says it’s good to be opening something new. “For us hot chicken is a social equaliser. It’s the epitome of comfort food and it makes you feel really good. Serving it at Circular Quay is a big milestone for us, we’re super excited.”

Belles Hot Chicken Circular Quay
Quay Quarter Tower, 50 Bridge Street, Sydney

Hours:
Mon to Thu 11.30am–9pm
Fri & Sat 11.30am–10.30pm

belleshotchicken.com
@belleshotchicken