We’ve recently launched some epic pub residencies. Bringing our food, brand, soul and kitchen know how to two busy city centre wet led pubs and knocking out our fried chicken for the hungry drinkers.

Give me a time when fried chicken and freshly brewed beer don’t go together. I’ll wait.

For me, I see this as the future of pubs and wet led establishments. Gone are the days of gastropub and don’t get me started on the menus that read like; cottage pie, lasagne, sirloin steak, pie and curry. Businesses can co-exist and compliment each other for mutual benefit.

You can see it on the rise within the competitive socialising space recently. Swingers, Lane 7 and more don’t want to get involved in the complicated and often stressful world of kitchen operations. They’ve got better, more fun thing to be worrying about on their courses and alleys. So, it’s make perfect sense to bring a well known brand in.

Synergy is absolutely paramount to ensure success. The cultural fit and alignment on target demographic is key. But I think that when you have two brands working in harmony and both focussing on what they’re good at, the payoff is massive for both brands.

The host venue can stand to gain an increase in sales volume on their core offering with the loyal fans of the food brand drawing people in. The food operator has a low risk, potentially high turnover opportunity that stands to increase brand awareness and affinity. And can tap into a corner of the market that was previously unrealised. For a growing brand looking to reach a new market area or to target new customers, it certainly beats the dark kitchen model.

For example, we’ve launched in the Turks Head in Exeter. Literally only a 5 minute walk from our Sidwell Street restaurant. But even that small distance is opening us up to a load of new hungry fried chicken munchers that we’d never seen before.

In Bristol, at the King Street Brewhouse, we’ve been able to start dipping our toe in the water for launching in the city. Through this partnership, we can build a tribe of loyal burger fans, so that when the time is right and we want to open a place of our own, we’ll have that collateral and “fame” to support our launch.

For a growing restaurant brand like ourselves, we see these kind of kitchen takeover partnerships, including food halls, as a key component to spreading the word and testing a new marketplace for potential fans.

So watch this space because we could be coming soon to a pub, bowling alley, miniature golf course or food hall near you.