Comiskey Group has installed its own butchery to service all of the group’s pubs, allowing them to control quality and portions.
In November last year, Comiskey Group launched an in-house butchery at Eatons Hill Hotel to service all six of the group’s pubs. Director Rob Comiskey said with the group’s venues selling high volumes of meat dishes, he wanted to ensure that group could control the quality of the meat it was cooking and selling.
“We currently turn over about one and a half to two tonnes of meat per week. So for us, while yes, we’re looking to save money, it was more driven by quality – being able to source our meat directly, portion control it, and track it.”
Comiskey Butchery was a significant investment. It cost almost $500,000 to set up in some reconfigured space within Eatons Hill Hotel, as well as the purchase of a truck to pick up meat from abattoirs, and delivering the final products to all six venues.
“So now we buy in bulk and we portion ourselves. We know exactly where the products are coming from, the quality of it, the marble score, the ageing process as well. All those ideas are key in the control of the quality. And the more of that we can bring in house, the less we’re at the mercy of distributors,” Comiskey explained.
Comiskey Butchery employs two full-time butchers and one part-time butcher, and currently services almost all of the group’s beef needs. It produces over 2500 burger patties for the week, as well as all of its steak cuts – everything from sirloins to T-bones. Comiskey says that are still nailing down the production of its beef cuts before it moves into pork or chicken.
The butchery works as a separate component of the group, so each venue’s kitchen team can order what it needs in the coming week.
“The hotels order through a system, it automatically places the order into the butchery. They arrive to work and they’re cutting and they’re sourcing that product for that day for it to go out. So it’s treated like it could be a butcher down the road. It’s treated like a separate thing, and it’s quite professional,” stated the director.
In terms of quality control, it also means the group’s chefs can give feedback directly to the head butcher, who can action any concerns or requests immediately.
A lot of care was taken with the design of Comiskey Butchery, which houses a couple of cold rooms, several pieces of equipment like band saws and a puck machine for making meat patties, as well as the right draining needed for such a space. It was more investment – in time, money and energy – than the group had first planned for. But for a group of its size, with several more venues to come, Comiskey says it was still worth it.
“It turned out to be a lot more intense, a lot more expensive than we originally thought. But looking back now, it was 100 per cent the right idea to do, now that we’ve got that control in house. We’ve invested in the future. With six current hotels and six more under construction, thinking about our capacity in the future, this will benefit us going forward, big time.”
The Butchery does save the group money, but Comiskey says the quality control is the ultimate benefit – as well as making it easier for the group to source specialised projects like Wagyu.
“We can bring in those special items at certain times of the year, and that’s where we’re going to take it – we’re going to elevate our offer.”
Eatons Hill Hotel will play host to the 2025 Pub Leaders Summit on 21-22 July. To attend the Summit and explore the renowned hotel, purchase your tickets here. Earlybird tickets are available until 2 June, with savings of up to $110 per ticket!