Virtually all of Lock, Stock & Barrel's food is made fresh on the premises, rather than cooked from frozen.
Back of house
Overseeing the kitchen team, as he does for all the other Solutions Leisure venues, is group executive chef Sang Lee.
“The food is affordable, fresh comfort food that’s quality driven,” he says.
“Classics and loads of sharing food. Homemade chilli, nachos, buckets of wings, buckets of fresh crayfish, and flatbreads. It’s all about familiar comfort food. In the last week-and-a-half the food sales have been quite high for a bar — we’re looking at about 20% of sales coming from food in our first 10 days. Food is available from 4pm until 1am, and as of March 4, brunch will be available from 2pm until 5pm.”
Tuesday Ladies nights started in February, running from 6pm until 3am.
The venue serves traditional British roast dinners on Saturdays and Sundays, in line with when the weekend falls in the UK, and Daniel tells Caterer Middle East that in the first weekend of roasts, LSB “sold 60 to 80 portions over two days, without any promotion”. The roasts consist of either beef, lamb or half a chicken with all the trimmings, including homemade gravy, all served in a giant plate-like Yorkshire pudding.
“We always try to buy locally where we can. I said from the start that I wanted to be a bar where people could get fresh food. The only frozen food we buy in is the jalapeño poppers — everything else is fresh and the feedback so far has been amazing. In all of our venues’ kitchens, the freezer is not that full.”
While the freezer might be under-used, the Josper and the Rational ovens are the items of kitchen equipment Lee would not be without.
“LSB’s cuisine is very different from any of our other venues but is closest in style to Q43’s menu,” Lee adds. “Here, however, we are more into sharing style and it’s not as refined as Q43. Little bites, sharing plates and finger food, aside from the steaks of course.
“We are selling a lot of everything so far, especially flatbreads, burgers and steaks.”
Lee, a South Korean native, who has 12 years’ hospitality experience, says he was inspired to create the menu from time spent working and living in the US. “I tried to remember and bring all the different flavours from where I had lived in the States and combine it for here.
“A guest said to me: ‘I love this place because after being here for the evening and walking outside I feel like I’m going to be on the streets of Brooklyn in New York’, so I think we are taking people outside of Dubai a bit.”
Lee adds: “Mainly we use local suppliers but we have meat coming from Australia, and fish coming from France and Norway. We will keep an eye on menu items to see what’s moving and what isn’t, and we are looking at adding more sauces to the menu.”
After recruiting Bruce Grobler within Dubai to be head chef of LSB, Lee already needs to hire more kitchen staff, including two to four more chefs, as LSB is busier than expected.
Operations manager Daniel is also looking to increase the number of bartenders from eight 16, and add “a couple more people out on the floor and one more manager”.
“We have a few more venues coming up,” reveals Daniel. “We will start building The Atlantic in May in Downtown Dubai, and we are looking to launch another Asia Asia and Q43 later in the year.”
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