Chargrilled chicken wars: Is the Red Rooster Line being redrawn?

The Chicken wars appears to be crossing the road to get to the other side of the unofficial ‘Red Rooster Line’, with boundaries being redrawn in Sydney, while new lines emerge in other capital cities.

As El Jannah pushes beyond its Western Sydney roots and Chargrill Charlie’s eyes new territory past its leafy heartland, the boundaries of the ‘Red Rooster Line’ are beginning to blur. Is the city’s great chicken divide finally breaking down?

Since being coined by Twitter user Big Jez in 2016, the ‘Red Rooster Line’ has served as a tongue-in-cheek cartography of taste, using quick-service chicken restaurants as a marker of where one resides in Sydney.

Always debate about the exact definition of Western Sydney: I present the Red Rooster Line (S. Hill an obv. outlier) pic.twitter.com/J1DsvpB02h

— Big Jez (@THE_REAL_BIGJEZ) February 7, 2016

Indeed, ask any Sydneysider what their favourite chicken joint is and you’ll learn just as much about their postcode as their palate.

The premise of the Red Rooster Line is simple: If you plot Red Rooster outlets across Sydney, a diagonal boundary running from Windsor to Carlton appears; a fault line dividing the city’s affluent northeast from its working class southwest.

In 2017, Sydney University reporters Natassia Chrysanthos and Ann Ding expanded on the concept for the Honi Soit publication, mapping the same divide through the territories of charcoal chicken chains El Jannah and Chargrill Charlie’s.

El Jannah has since expanded beyond the Red Rooster Line. Map originally via Honi Soit and adapted by realestate.com.au.

More recently, for her Substack essay The Four Chicken Frontiers of Sydney, food and lifestyle photographer Alana Dimou argued that Frangos also deserves its place on the dividing map.

Originally hailing from inner-west Petersham, the Portuguese-style chicken joint has expanded to 15 locations throughout Red Rooster’s western heartland.

Alana Dimou insists there are other non-chicken metrics that also reinforce Sydney’s culinary partition.

“Consider food lifestyle brands such as Yo-Chi and Fishbowl – two businesses whose marketing leans heavily into health and wellness,” Ms Dimou suggested to realcommercial.com.au.

“They remain concentrated in the northeast, with few outliers south of the Red Rooster Line.”

The ‘Red Rooster Line’ isn’t just limited to chicken, according to food and lifestyle photographer Alana Dimou. Picture: Instagram @alanadimou

But the map is rapidly changing, with El Jannah’s eastward expansion suggesting the Red Rooster Line is being rewritten in real time.

El Jannah crosses the line

Founded in 1998 by Lebanese immigrants Andre and Carole Estephan, El Jannah’s flagship venue in Granville became a fast-food phenomenon by putting a Middle Eastern spin on Aussie charcoal chicken.

“Back in 1998, El Jannah was one of the first of its kind to offer this type of food,” Mr Estephan told realcommercial.com.au last year.

“We saw an opportunity to sell a high-quality product that wasn’t already widely available and Granville was an ideal location because of the existing Lebanese community.”

Lebanese chicken chain El Jannah’s rapid expansion across Sydney is redrawing the chicken wars line. Picture: realcommercial.com.au

A second store opened in Punchbowl in 2009, followed by an ambitious franchising campaign that has since grown the business to 16 Sydney restaurants and 40 venues across NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

While the north shore suburbs of Crows Nest and Lindfield marked El Jannah’s first breach of the Red Rooster Line into enemy territory, its Randwick launch in July truly sounded the perimeter alarm.

Was this the moment east Sydney celebrated Lebanese chicken liberation?

“Yes, definitely,” said El Jannah chief executive Brett Houldin.

“It’s been an incredible two years moving into new markets since we expanded beyond the Newtown restaurant, which has been with us for about seven years. We’ve had very good success with Randwick and other restaurants [on the northeast] by offering a differentiated product which I think people in those areas have been looking for.”

El Jannah chief executive officer Brett Houldin. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Mr Houldin told realcommercial.com.au a new Brookvale restaurant is set to open on the Northern Beaches later this month, with Maroubra and Sydney CBD locations expected to follow early next year.

But despite these recent incursions, Alana Dimou believes the Red Rooster Line remains intact.

“If El Jannah were ever to open in Mosman or Rose Bay, then I’d reconsider my position on the Red Rooster Line, or the ‘Flavour Equator,’ as I like to call it,” she said.

That reconsideration may come sooner than later, as Mr Houldin confirmed the company is reviewing those suburbs “with interest.”

“Our brand and product could certainly perform really well in those areas,” he said. “We think people on the Lower North Shore, Eastern Suburbs and the Sutherland Shire are going to really enjoy our product when they get a chance to have more of it.”

‘Western Sydney wants flavour’

While El Jannah is pushing northeast, Chargrill Charlie’s has held firm to its eastern and lower north shore heartland, with only a handful of outposts, Olympic Park and Sylvania, venturing west of the poultry divide.

Founded in 1989 in Coogee by two South African families, the brand built its reputation on homestyle cooking, generous portions and friendly service – the hallmarks of the classic suburban chicken shop that continue to resonate with its northeast clientele.

Chargrill Charlie’s remains loyal to its eastern and lower north shore heartland, though it has ventured west of the poultry divide. Picture: realcommercial.com.au

In 2023, Chargrill Charlie’s was acquired by Craveable Brands, the parent company behind Red Rooster, Oporto and Chicken Treat. It’s a move that hints at a potential consolidation of Sydney’s quick-service restaurant chicken market, and perhaps even the Red Rooster Line itself.

“They’re owned by the same company, but there appears to be little crossover between Red Rooster and Chargrill Charlie’s,” remarked Alana Dimou, “and perhaps they’re keeping it that way.”

“Which is a shame, because every Sydney resident deserves decent proximity to some salty Red Rooster chippies!”

Regarding the brand’s expansion, Chargrill Charlie’s CEO Nathan Kelk told realcommercial.com.au their next store is set to open in North Kellyville in the coming months – straddling the northern perimeter of the Red Rooster Line.

“It’s important to us that we maintain our status as a local chicken shop, so we are taking the time to find the best site in each community,” Mr Kelk said.

Ms Dimou believes there’s simply too much great chicken in Sydney’s southwest for Chargrill Charlie’s to compete.

“Their marketing revolves around comfort and homeliness, even leaning slightly into the health-conscious angle, which I don’t think is particularly convincing to the discerning residents of Western Sydney,” she said.

“By contrast, marketing for western suburbs chicken shops seems to focus on flavour. Consider Awafi’s logo – a squawking bird ready to punch on. This isn’t homely or comforting, this is power. Western Sydney wants flavour.”

Does a Red Rooster Line exist in other cities?

For those living outside Sydney, the question stands: does your city have its own wall of chicken?

According to the ABC, Canberra-based chain Kingsley’s has created a comparable socio-economic divide to Sydney’s Red Rooster Line. Though in the nation’s capital, it forms more of a crescent than a straight line.

The broadcaster’s analysis found that in Canberra and Queanbeyan’s more “elite” areas, the median drive time to the nearest Kingsley’s was seven minutes and forty seconds, compared to five minutes and forty-five seconds elsewhere.

In Melbourne, however, there’s little evidence of a chicken line mirroring the city’s north-south socio-economic split across the Yarra River. While Red Rooster, El Jannah and Chargrill Charlie’s are all present, their territories overlap more freely.

The Red Rooster Line is more of a crescent in some capital cities than a line.

Brett Houldin said El Jannah’s Melbourne strategy focuses less on geography and more on opportunity.

“We’ve already got thirteen restaurants in Victoria and plan to double that in the next two years,” he said.

Whereas Sydney’s divide is east/west and Melbourne’s north/south, Brisbane by comparison has an inner vs outer-suburbs divide. In chicken terms, that means Red Rooster dominates outer-metro and suburban zones, particularly west, south, and bayside corridors, while Chargrill Charlie’s – which currently only has only two stores in Newstead and Camp Hill – appears to be focused on targeting upscale metro areas.

Nathan Kelk said there was huge demand for Chargrill Charlie’s in Brisbane.

“We’ve had customers writing to us, saying come to Brisbane, many who had experienced Charlie’s in Sydney or Melbourne through travel or interstate moves, so it was a natural fit.”

Mr Kelk confirmed that West End and Bulimba are next on the brand’s Brisbane roadmap.

El Jannah is also heading north.

“Over the next two years, you can expect to see at least a dozen great restaurants across southeast Queensland,” Brett Houldin said