Ikuei Arakane appointed head chef at The Glass House, Hobart
Ikuei Arakane at work in the Thousand Mile Cafe in Melbourne. Source: News Corp AustraliaWITH Hobart’s new Brooke Street Pier — in effect a massive, four-storey architect-designed pontoon reimagining the original pier — due to come on stream progressively during the first quarter of the year, key restaurant tenant The Glass House has appointed Ikuei Arakane as head chef. Ikuei — known to Victorians as KinSan — has developed a profile for his modern Japanese style at restaurants such as Koko, Taxi and Thousand Mile Cafe. The Glass House is a venture by The Islington Hotel’s David Meredith, who says the restaurant, designed by Hobart architects CIRCA Morris Nunn, will include standing and sitting bars for 30 for cocktails, a private lounge with a “keep” bar for Tasmanian whisky and an apron “with windows open to the waters (for as many of the days that Hobart’s temperamental weather allows).” A manager, Alexander Watson, has been drafted from Sydney’s Urban Purveyor Group.
Summit to add
WITH the Productivity Commission set to review the workplace system this year, including the touchstone issue (for the restaurant industry) of penalty rates, the timing of an industry summit could not be better. As a prelude to this year’s Noosa International Food and Wine Festival, the inaugural two-day Restaurant Industry Summit in May will grapple with workforce issues, consumer trends, cost of taxes and regulations. Organiser Jim Berardo calls it “a collaborative effort to effect positive change”. Attendees will include restaurateurs, suppliers, professional association representatives, Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive John Hart and federal MPs Bob Baldwin (Paterson, NSW) and Dan Tehan (Wannon, Vic). An industry white paper aimed at policymakers will be developed.
restaurantsummit.com.au
Square routes
DOWN at Collins Square, big-time property developer Lang Walker’s massive, multi-tower long-term project in the new bit of Melbourne’s CBD, it’s out with the old and in with the ... Old. The announcement that Bar Nacional exec chef Alex Drobysz has moved up the food chain to become “Group Executive Chef of Collins Square” seems to put an end to the Walker Baker Evans Restaurant Group (Nacional, Chiara, Long Shot), even though it is still visible online. Baker is Gavin Baker, the US chef who came to Australia to work with his mate Pete Evans at the ill-fated Little Hunter. Evans is ... Well, Pete Evans is one of the biggest names in telly with the hugely successful My Kitchen Rules about to launch another season. It’s understood Evans’s many diverse commitments prevented him spending as much time at Collins Square as he’d hoped. “In his new role, Drobysz will oversee Bar Nacional, Italian restaurant Chiara, cafe Long Shot and Collins Square Catering,” said Walker’s people via press release. What we don’t know is how the romance between the magnate and his chefs came to an end; it was only last year that the PR machine hit turbo boost on the precinct, its stars and its future; with promise of more restaurants and an emerging force. Neither has responded to First Bite, however, Baker is understood to be heading to an eco resort near Broome in Western Australia. It means the Collins Square group is now under the management of former chef Glenn Tobias, with Drobysz continuing to cook at Nacional, Scott Irving running Chiara and wine veteran Jeff Salt as group sommelier.
About faces
HAVING launched in 2012 with a team of “names” to some fanfare, Albert Street Food & Wine, in Melbourne’s Brunswick, drifted off the radar as those names (notably chef Philippa Sibley) drifted elsewhere. The new year sees the restaurant with an almost entirely new team in control. “The remit is to keep it simple and do it right,” says Oliver Gibson, the stylish venue’s new GM, a Briton who comes to Brunswick from Southbank, where he worked front of house for Neil Perry at Rosetta and Spice Temple. Prior to that, Gibson was with Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, in his native Cornwall. With Sibley’s successor Jason Rodwell another departure, new head chef Dayan Hartell-Law has arrived after stints at Quay, Soho House and Dinner in London under his belt, as well as the exclusive Lizard Island, so it can be assumed he knows fish. With a new restaurant manager, and a new sommelier/beverage manager (both with creditable experience) it might be time to take another look at a restaurant that did so well, so early.
Indian givers
LONGRAIN (Sydney) closed its Bunker Bar at the weekend, having shut Shortgrain at Christmas. A new venue for the subterrain Surry Hills space, Subculture, is due to open around February 7. With a kitchen overseen by the (half Indian) Longrain head chef Victor Chung, Sub adds momentum to an emerging modern Indian/subcontinental restaurant genre (see Bang in Crown Street, Surry Hills). “The whole space will get a major set change,” says proprietor Sam Christie. While upstairs, quelle horreur, Longrain now takes bookings. “We’re 15 years old,” says Christie “and those folks who were in their 40s when we opened and became regulars? Well, they’re not really up for four caipiroskas before dinner any more.” We understand.
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