From sating the appetites of regular patrons to sponsoring local sporting teams, Moe and the team at Hariri Chicken have very much become an important fixture in the Kogarah community — growing to meet its culinary and social needs.
“The community is forever adapting, especially here in Kogarah. You’ve got this entire pool of different ethnicities and people coming and going; with major medical and work hubs nearby, you get to see all walks of life,” Moe says.
“It’s funny when you have a cuisine such as Middle Eastern cuisine, it’s so broad, and people come in and see something they recognise; if not from their cultural background, then an alteration of their cultural background. We have that connection, that bridge that brings us all together,” Moe observes. “The Greeks, the Italians, the Lebanese, they all come in and they see something they’ve either grown up with or it’s in their culture of food. And it’s forever adapting, and that gives us the opportunity to grow and adapt; expand on menus, expand on ideas.”
“What’s good to see is that the simplicity has such a high effect. What we make is very simple stuff, right? Yes, it’s unavailable and rare because we make household dishes that only your mum would make, but we retail those things,” Moe says. “The gratification comes from when a customer of patron walks in and says ‘Oh my god, you sell that?! I haven’t had this since my mum passed away’ or ‘since I was home’. The nostalgia kicks in.”
Of course, when Moe says ‘simple’, he means to the eye. The food is very detailed. “For example, our hand-cut breast fillets. They’re crumbed in their own special blend; we hand cut the lettuce; we make the Frankie mayo. The buns are my buns! I call the baker and say ‘this is how I want them: a white milk bun with black and white sesame on there and a high shine on top’.”
Always looking to improve, Moe is buzzing with ideas — literally, since he begins and ends most days with a Red Bull. “One thing that I’m in the process of doing is creating a dessert bar in the courtyard. Plus from 4-5pm onwards, there’s not a lot open [in the area] any more, so maybe I can close that gap from 5pm to 10pm.”
Moe also gives back to the community; sponsoring a junior rugby league team (Kogarah Cougars), two soccer clubs (Roselands Raptors and Bankstown Football Club), and UAF charity fights. Hariri Chicken also do post-match meals for the St. George-Illawarra Dragons, and there could be no greater endorsement of the menu for the locals than that.
Instagram: hariri_chickens
Website: www.haririchickens.com.au
02-9553 0332
Est 1994
