Home Grown (Reading) Chicken

February 9, 2012 Leave a Comment

It’s Not Arthur’s…It’s Yours

This is probably a Michael Cain moment, in that “not a lot of people know that”.

I just thought I would take a minute to champion a local Reading business which stretches nationally and internationally.

I am talking about the brand Southern Fried Chicken.

Now we all like a bit of ‘dirty chicken’ now and again as my daughter calls it, but where does everyone head for such a wicked treat? To the Colonels of course, otherwise known as KFC.

With the UK economy as it stands at the moment I believe we need to support our UK based companies as much as possible.

Not so long ago I met Andrew Withers, CEO of Southern Fried Chicken who had a recent appearance on C4′s Undercover Boss. He is an absolutely charming man, who is exceedingly passionate about the quality of his product and the satisfaction of his customers.

You can read about the history of Southern Fried Chicken and local Reading boy Andrew who is now at the helm after taking over from his father, at www.southernfriedchicken.com 

You can also watch the C4 episode here

Andrew Withers, boss of Southern Fried Chicken, goes undercover in his fast food franchise, and is shocked by what he discovers about the standards, staff, food and customers.

Southern Fried Chicken was started by Andrew’s father back in the 1960s and now has outlets across the UK. Andrew feels passionately that the SFC brand in the UK is in need of an overhaul, and feels himself at odds with the carefully constructed image he has spent years developing for the brand in 70 countries overseas. In the UK, SFC is associated with post-pub late night binge eats rather than seen as a family restaurant.

Andrew spends time behind the counter to find out why the company’s 200 UK franchises aren’t living up to his expectations. Can he get his business back on track?

So before you drive to a KFC to line the pocket of the US economy, check out to see if there’s a Southern Fried Chicken near you…you know it makes sense.

Oh and one last thing, enjoy watching a Southern Fried Chicken team build a huge SFC bucket in snowy Russia amongst all the snowmen.

 
(Southern Fried Chicken’s headquarters are based in Woodley and the Reading branch is 164, Whitley Wood Road.)

Filed under Business, Foodie, Reading, UK Tagged with , , , , ,

To Hell on a Handcart Upgraded?

January 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

To Hell on a Handcart Upgraded?

Century Films are currently making a major documentary series about the rail network. Told from the point-of-view of staff and passengers, it’s exploring the upgrade of stations and tracks, the problems that bad weather can cause, the impact of crime … just about every aspect of daily railway life.

They are very keen to get in contact with people who regularly commute from / through Reading and into Paddington (First Great Western trains). The upgrade work that’s happening on this route is a big focus for the series, and they want to include the experience of passengers as well.

Do you use the route regularly? When do you use it? What’s your own FGW experience like?

Please contact Rob McCabe by email at robmccabe@mac.com or via his twitter account @robmccabe72


Filed under Reading, UK Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Thrills at Bill’s?

July 29, 2011 1 Comment

Everyone Likes a Freebie!

After a very lubricated Saturday night with two chums, experiencing the ‘oh dear, we’ve ended up in the After Dark club’ moment, a breakfast of fair substance was required the following morning.

There was a unanimous vote for Bill’s as the sun was shining and sitting opposite St. Mary’s Church in the fresh air seemed a good option.

The courtyard was exceedingly busy as would be expected. We found a table, sat down and waited for service. A very personable waiter appeared to take our drinks order, ravenous we were already primed to order our food…full English all round. We sneeked in our breakfast order by the skin of our teeth at approximately two minutes to twelve before breakfast service finished as our waiter told us.

Coffee, Earl Grey and freshly squeezed orange juice duly arrived, which was more than gratefully received. Given our ‘fragile’ state, carborific sustenance was in need urgently! After about twenty minutes and still no arrival of food the tweeters amongst us were doing what comes naturally and miraculously the waiter appeared, however it wasn’t our foodie needy tweets that had summoned the waiter but a natural apology of the tardy service and that a party of 25 had just pipped us at the post for our breakfast order. Now, call me pedantic but one would have thought that passing through our order of three breakfasts ahead of the 25 would have not resulted in our delayed service…but ho hum, it’s Sunday and go with the flow.

Ten more minutes passed and the charming front of house chap appeared at our table apologising for the delay and offered us more beverages and given our arid state that was very welcome.

Hurrah and Hussah…our breakfasts arrived albeit 25 minutes after we had ordered.

Three fully resplendent plates of eggs, bacon, tomato, mushroom etc including apparently ‘bubble & squeek’.

I am fully aware that the proprieter of Bill’s is Antipodean and therefore ‘bubble & squeek’ would not be a staple dish down under. I think that maybe the chefs need to be educated that mash with a wee, and I mean wee, bit of sauteed savoy cabbage dotted within it does not equate to what we in the UK would associate with ‘bubble & squeek’ (I feel a whole new post coming on there)!

That aside, the breakfast was cooked exceedingly well and did the medicinal job it was ordered to do.

Fully sated and now all wilting, discussed our busy schedule for the rest of the day to veg in front of the TV for the German Grand Prix. After our plates were cleared, the exceedingly personable front of house chap effortlessly navigated his way to our table…”so sorry for the delay guys, I hope you enjoyed your breakfast. For the record the bill is squared away”.

We were more than happy to pay for our fayre, it was good, the staff were excellent, the only downfall was the tardiness of the arrival of our breakfast, but it is Sunday and we were chilling.

What a refreshing attitude to service…big brownie points to Bill’s.

Footnote:

My dining partners were @pdmckenzie and @_Andythehat

Filed under Foodie, Reading, UK, Restaurants Tagged with , , , , , ,

Côte du Reading

May 5, 2011 2 Comments

Côte du Reading

After a fabulous weekend of serious alcoholic celebration of the Royal Wedding and the Reading Beer Festival, Sunday proved to be an equally chilled day starting with a full Irish breakfast in O’Neill’s and then a wander around the wonderful waterways and landmarks of Reading in the sunshine.

After a stop off at Copa sitting in the sunshine and having a well deserved Erdinger or two we ambled along the towpath of the Kennet & Avon up towards the Oracle with a bite to eat in mind.

Wandering into The Oracle we stumbled upon Côte which has only been open for a couple of weeks replacing the hideous venue that was Brannigans. The restaurant has a very welcoming frontage and did it’s trick of enticing us in.

We were early birds so it wasn’t very busy but it did enable us to take in the surroundings and decor. Black and tans compliment the vast array of bevelled mirrors lending a very soft art deco feel giving the ground floor a very airy disposition without losing the intimacy that belies that by the carefully positioned covers. Shared sofa seating, banquettes and neatly positioned tables in alcoves and booths add to the charm and atmosphere. It is also certainly somewhere where I would feel just as comfortable dining on my own as when with company, so all you lone diners out there and travelling business folk, fear not.

We were promptly seated and asked what we’d like to drink and ordered a bottle of the house red. Always a good test as to what a restaurant is prepared to lend it’s ‘house’ name to. A complimentary bottle of Côte water arrived in an attractive Côte branded earthenware bottle.

The menu is studded with typical French dishes and enticements. We plumped for a fougasse, which can loosely be described as a French version of focaccia. It was deliciously salty with a delightfully balanced garlicky undercurrent. As well as the fougasse we had the pissaladière flat bread with a covering of caramelised onions and chose the topping of reblochon (I love my cheese!). During our breadfest the staff were attentive but not intrusive by topping up our wine and replacing our water bottle.

Our next course was delivered, with The Chap having the ubiquitous steak & frites and me the ‘Breton’ chicken. The Chap enthused about how perfectly the steak was cooked and how the smokiness achieved from the chargrilling made each mouthful a delight and ready for the next. The Breton chicken is a beautiful corn fed, crispy skinned chargrilled half a chicken. I chose mushroom as my choice of accompanying sauce, which was rich, earthy and dispersed with a wonderful assortment of wild mushrooms…yes, The Chap couldn’t resist dunking his frites in it! The plates weren’t overloaded and the frites delivered in a cheeky little bucket.

Resting and slurping more wine, the decision of to dessert, or not to dessert, arose. The dessert menu has all the typical Gallic offerings from apple tart to crème brûlée. The Chap has a penchant for chocolate (just call him Greg Wallace) and I do like a crème brûlée, which I believe is another good benchmark. So I ‘brûlée’ and The Chap selects the chocolate mousse, only for us to be disappointed when the manager informs us that the mousse is not quite set and chef is not happy to send them out. We’re both pleasantly satisfied though that the kitchen is overseen with pride of the quality of the dishes served, hopefully on every service, so a switch to chocolate fondant is made.

Now call me picky but a cocotte is not a brûlée dish, the clue is in the title. So I was a tad disappointed when my dessert arrived. Being cooked in a cocotte meant that there was too much custard underneath making the dish rather sickly, having said that they were creamy, velvety, guilty spoonfuls of vanilla heaven. The other small critique is that the crunchy, sugary topping was too thin and lacking in the ‘crack & crunch’ satisfaction levels. The chocolate fondant was an airy, light sponge with an unctuous, oozing interior, delectably dark, sweet and slightly bitter which was off set by the happy partner of vanilla ice cream.

Has to be said that we were both suitably sated and at a very reasonable price too.

It is certainly somewhere where you can easily lose time enjoying the variety of choices from the menu or watching the world go by outside with a beer or coffee and maybe a sneaky dessert.

I for one will be going back for more.

www.cote-restaurants.co.uk

Filed under Foodie, Restaurants Tagged with ,

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