november-2012

18
takeoff » food buzz
the inn thing
Australia raises the bar with its
new wave of gastropub menus
Australia’s gastropub
movement is redefining pub
eating, as a new wave of wateringhole
eateries shift the main
attraction from brews to menus.
Keith Austin, the editor of The
Sydney Morning Herald Good Pub
Guide, defines a gastropub as one
that’s gone out of its way to source
and serve good-quality food that’s
simple, seasonal, and at prices that
won’t break the bank.
“It’s a phenomenon that’s been on
the rise in Britain for a good 15 years,
and here in Australia for the past
three or four years,” says Austin.
At the apex of the movement
is Melbourne’s iconic Builders
Arms Hotel in Collingwood, where
celebrated chef Andrew McConnell
has opened two new eateries already
packed with diners: a bistro with its
own dry ageing room and a seasonal
focus, and an intimate fine-dining
restaurant called The Moon
under Water. The latter, featuring
a weekly-changing
four-course tasting
menu, has been
particularly praised.
McConnell named
The Moon under Water
after a fictitious pub
described by George Orwell,
which details numerous criteria that
his ideal watering hole should abide
by. “Most of those qualities we’ve tried
to implement,” says McConnell, citing
informed and friendly service, garden
dining, a relaxed atmosphere and
“very refined, smart, bistro-style food”.
Among Sydney’s top pub
restaurateurs is Irish chef Colin
Fassnidge, who assumed the helm
at Paddington’s Four in Hand hotel
several years ago, and turned its
restaurant into an award-winning
destination. This year, he also added
Oxford Street’s Paddington Arms to
his pub food stable.
“In a way the whole gastropub
thing made me angry,” he says,
It’s all about
simple food,
good value
and cooking
food well
explaining that
from the beginning,
he operated the
Four in Hand in
the same way he
would any fine-dining
restaurant. “Some people
gave me grief because it was in
a pub,” he recalls. He didn’t pay the
adjoining bar much attention until
the global financial crisis hit and
his fine-dining patronage halved.
In an attempt to address this, he
upped the food quality at the bar –
serving the likes of crumbed pig’s
tail with celeriac rémoulade, roast
bone marrow, and corned beef with
braised fennel – and substantially
beefed up his bottom line.
Fassnidge says pub dining has
become more accomplished as
diners have come to know and
expect more. Now, he says, it’s all
about simple food, good value and
cooking food well. “And it’s not hard
to cook well, really,” he adds.
Words: michael shafran