HAVING unleashed a very successful hybrid bar/pub/dining room/cocktail joint on Brisbane's Fortitude Valley last year (the wacky and very satisfying Alfred & Constance), entrepreneur Damian Griffiths has begun work on two new projects bound to attract attention.
The first is Alfredo's in a neighbouring warehouse he has purchased on Constance Street: a late-night pizzeria and pasta place that may owe a little in inspiration to Melbourne's Chin Chin and Baby. Wood oven expert Denis Benson, a friend of the late wood oven guru Alan Scott, is building his latest forno as we speak. He also built the big wood oven at A&C. The same designer who has given A&C its distinctive objet trouv aac look, Alexander Lotersztain, will work on Alfredo's. Executive chef Jocelyn Wilcock will oversee the menu while head chef will be Daryl Wilmot. Expect an opening in late March. Project two is Chester Street Kitchen, not far away in New Farm, a business that is being reconfigured: the aforementioned Benson is also building an Alan Scott-design oven there to help Griffiths with his dream of running a sourdough bakery by day, bar and restaurant by night. Just what Griffiths does with an old noodle factory he's leased in Constance Street (next door to Alfredo's) remains to be seen. But we sense momentum from this team.
WEST Australian stalwart Alain Fabregues has signalled the end of his time at Mundaring's famous The Loose Box. The Frenchman has run the restaurant and cottages for 34 years. Fabregues, 64, has put the business on the market to focus on his new Subiaco Bistro des Artistes and a truffiere in the Avon Valley.
IN a slightly controversial off-season transfer, The Daylesford Hotel's new publican Anne Marie Banting (First Bite, December 18) has picked up Trentham duo "The Dans" for her new business. "The Dans" are Daniel Melbourne, chef at Annie Smithers's Trentham restaurant Du Fermier, and his partner and Du Fermier manager Daniel Clarkson. "I've eaten there many times and I love Dan's food," says Banting of her new head chef. "I think they both really get what we want to achieve in the dining room, which is classic bistro food with a regional accent." Banting and partner Graham Bamford, both with considerable experience in food and wine, are on track to build one of regional Victoria's most interesting food and wine pubs. "Annie doesn't suffer fools gladly, and she's been happy with the boys." For her part, Smithers, whose eponymous Kyneton Bistrot is on the market, was always planning to go back into the kitchen at Du Fermier once Bistrot is sold. "I'm just glad she pinched them from me and not Alla (Wolf-Tasker, matriarch of The Lake House, Daylesford)," said Smithers. "These things happen."
MEANTIME, the aforementioned Lake House has just signed one of Australia's most highly regarded young female sommeliers, Stacy-Lee Edwards, who joins the restaurant from Melbourne's Virginia Plain. Edwards was head sommelier at London's River Cafe, no less; her Italian wine knowledge is strong. And what of incumbent Tom Hogan, runner-up in last year's prestigious and gruelling Len Evans Tutorial? "I'm a firm believer that if in you're in this game eventually you've got to have a crack at doing something for yourself," he says. In June, Hogan leaves Lake House after a three-month handover to Edwards to open his own wine bar, in Port Melbourne. "Allan and Alla have given me an amazing opportunity and a lot of independence. I think we'll remain firm friends."
CANBERRA'S Alto restaurant, at the popular Black Mountain Tower, also referred to as Telstra Tower, shut its doors last week. Alto was a revolving restaurant and Canberra's only such novelty. Details are scarce, although the tenant was known to be in dispute with the landlord, Telstra. A spokesperson for Telstra said: "We have settled the dispute out of court and the detail of the settlement is confidential."
THERE'S a warming generational transition story to the opening of Bernie's Diner in Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Bernie's opens next week; at the helm you'll find chef Giuliano Colosimo, a former Icebergs staffer, and Ioannis Benados, a front-of-house guy. And they've done a cracking job recreating the look of a real American diner. What's nice, however, is the story: Benados's grandfather opened the original Bernie's on the same site in 1926, having resettled here from Cithara in Greece. Tongue in cheek, Benados describes the approach as "Americano-Greco-Italian".
lethleanj@theaustralian.com.au
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