Collaroy to open this month

Justin Hemmes’ pub empire just keeps expanding with him announcing that he plans to to relaunch The Collaroy Hotel this month.

The Collaroy will add more waterfront views to Hemmes’ Merivale portfolio and all of it is a sign that at Merivale is planning to  beef up its northern beaches portfolio.

Merivalle swooped on the northern beaches property for $21 million in August last year.

Hemmes is looking to do something that’s been created at Newport – a balance between the informality of a cafe and the polish of a restaurant.

The Pittwater Road pub is being reinvented by designer Kelvin Ho and executive chef Jordan Toft who also runs the kitchen at Bert’s.

The former Coogee Pavillion chef has already unveiled a few dishes and it looks like The Collaroy will be offering an all-day elegant beach-shack-style menu.

All of which has been designed to suit snacking by the sea.

The ground floor kiosk will serve breakfast with coffee, juice, house-made pastries and breakfast pizza on offer.

The lunch it will be offering toasted faro served with avocado, a boiled egg, rocket, grilled haloumi, olive oil and lemon.

And for snacks, there will be freshly carved prosciutto and grissini, ham croquettes with spicy aioli, and anchovy toasts sprinkled with pickled shallots.

As for dinners, the venue will go into gastropub mode and the menu will change daily.

Examples include the lamb-and-eggplant moussaka on Mondays.

And on Tuesdays, it will be pork-and-fennel sausages with roasted pumpkin and green garlic or a coastal take on roasts.

There will be an open kitchen upstairs and the two bars will be stocked with oysters, local seafood, charcoal meats, burgers and salads.

The pizza bases for margheritas and gamberis will be kneaded by Vincenzo Biondini from Vinnie’s Pizza which also operates out of The Newport and Coogee Pavilion.

And apart from the woodfired pizza, the bar menu will also offer burgers.

Leon Getler 8th May 2018.