The pub opened on the former site of the group’s original The Coal Shed restaurant with a menu that ranged from salt-baked celeriac to beef cheek and bone marrow pie.
Its new signature dish is chicken marinated for 48 hours before being cooked on the rotisserie.
Served with burnt guindilla chillies and garlic toum, Crazy Chicken costs £20 for a half bird or £40 for a whole bird to share.
A meal with flatbread, house pickles, toum and fries costs £29 or £58 respectively.
The wider menu includes whipped feta with Persian pistachios and chilli oil; skewers, kofta and wood-fired halloumi; and sides such as charred tenderstem broccoli with whipped tahini and fries seasoned with chicken salt.
Pomegranate-glazed rotisserie lamb shoulder for two (£60) is available Friday to Sunday, while two set sharing menus cost £27.50 and £37.50 per person.
On Sundays, the pub will serve roasts of chicken and lamb alongside a vegan cauliflower steak and a children’s roast. All come with crispy smashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and roasting-tray gravy.
“Fifteen years ago, we built this business around cooking over fire and sourcing the best dry-aged beef in the country,” says Black Rock founder Razak Helalat. “We’ve put everything we learnt from that into chickens, in the same building where The Coal Shed started.”
The new menu will make its public debut during OctoberBEST, Brighton’s month-long restaurant festival.
A limited-edition Birds & Bubbles sharing menu will be available from noon to 5pm on weekdays between 12 and 25 October, priced at £30 per person for a minimum of two guests.
It includes house pickles, flatbread and black chickpea hummus to start, followed by a whole Crazy Chicken with burnt guindillas, padrón peppers and toum.
Sides include fried potatoes with aji verde and charred hispi cabbage with sesame butter and pistachio dukkah. Blackberry, bay leaf and crushed meringue soft serve finishes the meal.
“The 48-hour marinade gives the chicken time to absorb all those flavours, while the charcoal adds smokiness and charred skin,” says Black Rock group head chef Kim Woodward. “Getting it consistently right takes real skill.”
Black Rock Restaurant Group now operates four restaurants in Brighton and a further site in London.