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Fried chicken and whisky bar Young and Frisky opens in Canberra

Jil Hogan
Jil Hogan

Owner Nick Parkinson behind the bar at Gungahlin's newest venue, Young and Frisky.
Owner Nick Parkinson behind the bar at Gungahlin's newest venue, Young and Frisky. Rohan Thomson

Gungahlin's long-awaited new watering hole is finally ready to open its doors.

Young and Frisky is the new venture from Hopscotch owners Nick Parkinson and Brian Smith and is a bar dedicated to fried chicken and whisky.

The venue has a similar feel to its Braddon counterpart, with a few key differences. For a start, in the kitchen the inspiration is from the southern states of America.

"We've got hot fried chicken as well as southern fried, so you work your way through different heat levels, starting with southern fried, mild, medium to plucking hot," Parkinson said.

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"We're specialising in all the sides that you find on a southern American menu – mac and cheese, mash and gravy, braised greens, crinkle cut fries, pickles and we've also got the usual suspects that you'd find at any pub."

Behind the bar you'll find much of what you can get at Hopscotch. They're again not contracted to any breweries, so the tap list will change regularly, and they've also exclusively locked in a new local brew on tap.

"We've taken on Capital Brewing Company, who are a couple of good friends of ours who have just opened that brewery up, so we're the first person to lock them in to taps in Canberra," Parkinson said.

"We've put them on here and Hopscotch for the next 12 months."

The interior at Young and Frisky is similar to its sister venue, with black walls and wooden furniture. Running along one wall is the bar, with a giant lightbox above advertising what's pouring on tap. The floorboards are recycled from the AIS basketball court and there's also recycled Canberra red bricks and timber from Thor's Hammer worked into the fitout.

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The giant double black front doors also open out of the bar to an outdoor area, with heaters at the ready for the cooler months.

Parkinson said the bar, which is tucked away on Gungahlin Place West on the outside of the Big W building, is all about giving something back to the Gungahlin people.

"It's just a local pub for the Gungahlins' to really call something their own. We've got so much in Braddon, so much in Civic, and there's so many people out here it's taken way too long for there to be actually established bars and pubs around here," Parkinson said.

"There's a great demographic out here and I feel they've been screaming for something like this for a while."

Parkinson said Young and Frisky would host have live acoustic music, plus DJs from 9-12.

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As for the cheeky name, it comes from a "play on words with rhyming slang for whisky".

Open daily 11.30am-midnight.

Gungahlin Place West, Gungalin, youngandfrisky.com.au

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Jil HoganJil Hogan is an food and lifestyle reporter at The Canberra Times.

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