Paul Wilson goes it alone with site next to Prahran Market
Paul Wilson, responsible for shaping so much restaurant food over 15 years — in Melbourne and Sydney — is finally doing his own thing.
He has secured a prime site on South Yarra’s Commercial Road, attached to Prahran Market, his landlord-in-waiting. After leaving Melbourne Pub Group a few years ago, he has spent his time consulting, “a great education, but it’s time for my own thing”. The good news is that he plans to cook. “The business is best described as a luxe urban eatery,” says Wilson, who is collaborating with family. “The site gives me frontage to Commercial Road and backs on to the Market Square. Everything about this ticks the boxes.” Wilson’s tender for the site, which he says will take inspiration from his days at Botanical, was one of several from “very well-known chefs”. He has engaged architectural practice Kestie Lane Studio; last week Lane won an Eat Drink Design award for work on Melbourne cafe Kettle Black. No name yet, but expect a March opening.
PERTH: For a city with amazing beaches, seaside dining opps in Perth are few. Things are changing. The Shorehouse — a cocktail of good management (Scott Taylor’s restaurant group) and talented head chef Oliver Gould (ex-Stokehouse) — opened recently at Swanbourne Beach. At Trigg Beach the Kailis family has opened a Greek-ish seafood cafe. And at City Beach, the City of Cambridge is building a bold structure for the local surf lifesaving club. Three food tenants are lined up: a cafe, a pizzeria and a smart restaurant branded The Hamptons. Behind the new business is Fiona Slobe, daughter of Perth pub and property developer Sonja Gastevich, and her husband Marcel. “Whenever we’ve had time off we alway found ourselves in Long Island,” says Marcel. “That’s what’s inspired this, bringing a bit of the Hamptons back to Perth.” Slobe aims for a “modern Australian restaurant with touches of Hamptons influence, such as crab”. They are yet to hire a chef and hope for a March opening.
In Nedlands, chef (and truffle grower) David Coomer is putting a bullet in his seven-year veteran Pata Negra, to reopen as a modern pan-Asian. Coomer made quite a reputation at Shenton Park’s Star Anise (now Le Petit Mort). “A fine diner? Never again,” he says. The last slice of jamon goes out on December 19; Coomer reckons he’ll be making tamarind caramel and braising duck by early February.
Still out West, Perth chilli suppliers, look out. Restaurateur David Thompson is in town from Bangkok to open Long Chim, at the State Buildings, on December 1.
SYDNEY: Urban Purveyor Group, the company behind the four Sake restaurants in three states, 10 Bavarian Bier Cafes and others, has revealed the location of its first foray into the Italian sector (First Bite, November 3). Stella Ristorante & Terrazzo will be at the Harry Seidler-designed Grosvenor Place in Sydney’s CBD. We are promised a “southern Italian-influenced menu drawing inspiration from the Amalfi coast and Sicily … spanning wood-fired pizzas, house-made pasta and seasonal produce”. The company’s first Sake Jr will be next door. UPG has just been acquired by Quadrant private equity fund for nearly $200 million.
MELBOURNE: “Melbourne design identity” and former restaurateur (remember Rosati, with Ronnie Di Stasio, and Pieroni’s?) Piero Gesualdi is back in the game. Sort of. The style guru will open a retail boutique — Mondo Piero — with a wine bar out front and cafe at the rear in premises on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.
CALIFORNIA: Muso producer Moby has opened a vegan restaurant in Silver Lake, California. Everything on the menu will be organic, regardless of cost. “I can’t sacrifice the quality of the food we serve,” Moby told the Los Angeles Times. “I would rather, honestly, have a restaurant that is 100 per cent organic and loses a little bit of money than serve compromised food that makes money. I don’t see the point in serving anything that I wouldn’t have in my house.”
Source: The Australian, John Lethlean, 24th November 2015
Originally published as: Paul Wilson goes it alone with site next to Prahran Market
