Bondi Trattoria gets a rejuvenation
The Bondi Trattoria, otherwise known as the Tratt, is getting a makeover.
Joe Pavlovich, former executive Chef of Luke Mangan’s restaurant group and another long-time Mangan senior ex employee, Alasdair France, who was the Mangan’s Group’s operations manager, have snapped up the Tratt.
And that means the both of them have left the Mangan empire and are stepping out on their own to run the popular beachside eatery which has been a popular haunt for 20 years, offering pasta, pizza, entrees and mains from an Italian inspired menu, along with its short wine list.
It will be their first venture as proprietors.
The venue is shut for early May and will re-open on May 18, after a cosmetic makeover.
And when it opens, it will have a similar menu which will largely remain true to its Italian roots.
"We'll keep some dishes, like the angel hair pasta, but we might freshen it up a little. We'll be making our own pasta. And we're looking at introducing a whole salt-baked fish for two," Pavlovich told Good Food.
Pavlovich, who was trained in New Zealand, has done the hard yards for the Mangan business.
Starting out in the kitchen of Mangan's Bistro LuLu, he has gone on to open restaurants from Singapore to the Maldives. He has been a key player for Luke Mangan.
When he started with the business, it had only one restaurant. The group has since expanded to include the ‘Salt’ restaurants in Japan, Jakarta, Bali, Surfers Paradise, Singapore and Tokyo. And then of course, there is the iconic Glass in Sydney’s Hilton Hotel.
That’s in addition to the P&O Cruise liner partnership.
So indeed, the last 16 years of his life have been spent expanding Mangan's brands.
"I've easy done 20 new places, Alasdair possibly more," Pavlovich told Good Food.
by Leon Gettler, May 11th 2017
