Golden opportunity for McConnell’s next move
Chef Andrew McConnell and head chef Arnulfo Josue at Golden Fields restaurant, which will close this month
A HINT? A directional nod? We’d like to think so.
Golden Fields will close this month, an end to an all too-brief reign as one of Melbourne’s shining lights, we reckon, but in its place ... Luxembourg. “After the Jardin du Luxembourg, in Paris,” says partner, chef and indefatigable mover and shaker in the Melbourne restaurant world Andrew McConnell, “not the city or grand duchy.” McConnell has formed canny partnerships around town over the years with the talented alumni of his restaurants, and Luxembourg will be no different. The new restaurant, due for a May opening, will be run by chef Chris Watson, McConnell’s latest partner and the erstwhile head chef at Cutler & Co, the high-end McConnell Fitzroy dining room. Last year, McConnell told us a name was the only thing he and Watson couldn’t agree on, so we’re glad that hurdle’s been cleared. The space will become a wine bar serving European food. Cutler’s sous chef, Rory Coucher, will fill the Watson vacancy. May will definitely be the operator’s mensis horribilis, with his Supernormal due to open around the same time in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane. Much of the Golden Fields DNA — including chef Todd Moses — will be transplanted in the CBD at SN, so the passing of the St Kilda restaurant is tempered by the launch of something offering enormous promise. Well, that’s the theory.
THE death knell finally rang for Melbourne’s Little Hunter last week as the landlord changed the locks. “We understand the tenant and landlord reached an agreement to go their separate ways,” we were told by the agent. Little Hunter never really recovered from a sale and the departure of key talent late last year, the result of its original ownership entity going into liquidation with major debts. The current operator/tenant, Junior Hunter, had a lot of shared directors with the failed company Little Hunter. Celebrity chef Peter Evans extricated himself from the business this year.
THE momentum in Sydney’s Potts Point is impressive, and two existing players are set to add fuel to the fire. Sam Christie and Jonathan Barthelmess, partners at Apollo, are turning Japanese for their next Macleay Street project, Cho Cho San. Chef Nic Wong will be Barthelmess’s senior kitchen man, coming back to the group from Ester. Before that he was at Bodega and Billy Kwong. “People might say it’s a bit odd two Greek guys running a Japanese restaurant,” says Christie, but Jonathan is a major fan of Japan and I have run two rather successful Thai restaurants for quite a while.” Christie is a founder of Longrain in Sydney and Melbourne. He says the menu will be a little bit of everything Japanese including fried, raw, charcoal, salads and curries.
AFTER 18 years, Melbourne businessman Joe Catalfalmo and his partner Rabih Yanni have sold The Point on Albert Park Lake. We don’t know who the new owners are, but exec chef Justine Wise tells us The Point will continue as is, albeit with renovations. He and sommelier Jane Semple will stay on as part of the restaurant’s new era.
IN Adelaide, so many restaurant roads lead to the publicity-shy Walter Ventura, a man with a finger in so many pies. With involvement in the brand new Tony Tomatoes and Gin Long, we hear Ventura is also the new owner of D’Artagnan restaurant, in North Adelaide, which he is turning into a “contemporary art gallery”.
Source: The Australian - 8 April 2014
