It’s no secret that the last year has been hell for restaurants with the impact of the pandemic and SA’s lockdown restrictions. Sadly over 3000 eateries have had to close their doors and the industry has a very long road to recovery but it’s encouraging to hear how business models are changing and menus adapting to this unprecedented new normal.

Chef Peter Tempelhoff of Eat Out number 5 restaurant, Fyn and the newly opened Beyond Restaurant, is launching a ghost kitchen called Stickman by Fyn. Instead of cooking for eat-in diners, ghost or “dark” kitchens offer food exclusively for delivery.

“About a year ago we started building what was going to be the coolest little yakitori restaurant this side of Tokyo, “he posted on social media. “We had the space half-built, had the chickens reared, the menu was tasted (and photographed), the website was done, branded hats and shirts signed off, an awesome team of people contracted up, two tonnes of binchotan were on the water, and I even had the first delivery of Japanese whiskies and sakes arrive on my doorstep.”

We all know what happened…Lockdown.

“I often look back and wonder what could have been and how the COVID situation has changed paths and lives – for me and countless others like me,” he says.

But Peter and his business partner, Ashley Moss didn’t let that stop them from bringing the Stickman brand to life. Instead, they’ve partnered with Bolt Food to deliver the mouth-watering yakitori (chicken cooked on a stick) and ramen to your doorstep until such time as Stickman can move into a brick and mortar restaurant which guests are able to visit.

Stickman by Fyn is launching this week with Tokyo-style yakitori (no westernised garnishes) using the best-pastured birds with jidori bloodlines (yakitori birds) which are being reared at the moment and all cooked on binchotan charcoal – in the true Japanese way.

“We are also expecting a French black chicken (poulet noir) variety in about a month. Soooo excited!” Peter says. “We will be respecting the bird from its wingtip to wingtip – in the restaurant, we’ll be serving everything from the heart and the skin to the cartilage and the belly – but for home delivery, we’re keeping it less adventurous and mixing yaki (chicken) with beef, fish and vegetables. Home delivered sticks will be plain or have an option to add a bed of Japanese rice making it into a donburi. We’re also adding loads of street food sides like karaage and Kyoto style okonomiyaki”.

Find Stickman by Fyn on Bolt Food.

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