Owned and operated by the Publican Group (who own 12 bars and restaurants across Melbourne and Perth), Hopscotch is a funky beer bar and restaurant located on Melbourne’s vibrant Southbank promenade.  The kitchen is led by the Publican Group National Executive Chef Talina Manzies.

Originally from Perth, Talina now calls Melbourne home and Hopscotch was the first venue in Melbourne that she has opened.

“This venue is very much me, dude food style menu and beer; my favourite things,” said Talina. “The venue is built around beer and the menu has been designed around beers. It’s everything that you want when you’re sitting around having a few beers out on a terrace hanging out with friends. Not the kind of things you would eat with a fork and knife, but its salty, crispy, social food.”

Talina engaged Jim Carpoussis, Senior Project Manager for Hospitality World Direct (HWD) to help her fitout her kitchen. Talina’s biggest concerns were service times and labour costs, so Jim factored these in when recommending the best possible equipment for Talina’s dude food menu.

“We needed the kitchen to allow us to have the meal in front of the customers with 15 minutes,” explained Talina. “It needs to be fast and we need to be able to turn the tables over quickly.”

The decision was therefore made to install Frymaster MJ35 commercial fryers, Garland Restaurant Series commercial grills, target tops and burners and a RATIONAL combi oven.

“Labour costs are one of the largest expenses we face, and having the right equipment can play a big part in reducing these costs. The RATIONAL oven helps us keep our labour costs down, we vacuum seal food, load it up and leave it to slow cook overnight. The financial outlay isn’t cheap but it defiantly pays for it themselves 10 times over,” said Talina.

“Hopscotch is a high volume, quick turn over style venue; the equipment is pumping 7 days a week from 10am till 11pm. The Garland Restaurant Series target top, grill and flat top don’t stop, they may be a larger financial outlays but they are an investment because they are going to last longer. They are like beasts, they pump out really, really high volume food; when you need equipment that is going to withstand the test of time it’s definitely the one you need.”

Be sure to stop by Hopscotch with two hands ready – one for holding beer and one for holding their dude food delights!