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Warm weather, water views: From the northern beaches to Kyle Bay in Sydney’s south, the city is stockpiling new waterside restaurant stock for summer.
New wine bar and grocer The Corner is set to take over The Boathouse Palm Beach in late September, joining a spring wave of waterside pivots, reboots and launches across Sydney’s hospitality sector.
From Palm Beach in the north to Kyle Bay in Sydney’s south, the city is stockpiling new waterside restaurant stock for summer. In November, British celebrity chef Rick Stein is expected to launch a 220-seat restaurant and bar overlooking Coogee Beach, while the team from northern beaches favourite Pilu at Freshwater plans to open Flaminia at Circular Quay.
The Corner will bring a new concept to the peninsula, says head chef Sam Kane: “I call it a grocery store with a wine bar.”
The Boathouse Group partnered with Kane to rebrand the parkside venue occupied by The Boathouse Palm Beach, which is now slated to close on Sunday, September 14.
“It used to be a homewares store [with] a cafe, but didn’t have any [great] point of difference,” Kane says. “[Now], day-trippers will be able to pop in for supplies, some produce, a sandwich or some sunscreen.”
Kane worked at high-profile venues such as Bistro Moncur in Woollahra before relocating north for a five-year stint as head chef at Merivale restaurant Bert’s Bar & Brasserie in Newport. When he left Bert’s to spend more time with his young family, the chef decided to stay on the northern beaches.
Inspired by the chef’s relationships with food producers, The Corner plans to sell hard-to-find ingredients Kane himself would like to buy, while offering a strong eat-in program.
As well as the daytime eat-in offering, on Friday and Saturday nights Kane will put his kitchen apron back on to pump out an $85 fixed-price dinner.
“There’ll be some similarities to the way I built dishes at Bert’s, [including] elements of the crudo,” Kane says. “But [the menu] mostly [consists of] new stuff built around the produce and [seafood] out of the Hawkesbury.”
Going Greek
One of the emerging trends on the Sydney waterfront is the number of restaurants pivoting to Greek food. Bondi Pavilion restaurant Promenade Bondi Beach recently joined the party, relaunching as Etheus in August. Now, diners plough through plates of spanakorizo or king prawn saganaki as they watch the waves roll in to Bondi Beach.
It’s a similar story at Woolloomooloo, where seafood restaurant Manta was reborn as the Greek-leaning restaurant Akti in June, and at Kyle Bay, where Jaaks Restaurant and Bar reopened on Friday, September 12 with a new concept and design revamp.
Jaaks head chef Arman Uz, who drew on his Turkish heritage during his previous role as executive chef for the hospitality group behind Sydney restaurants such as Maydonoz and Baharat, hopes the waterside restaurant can bring Greek island vibes to Sydney’s southern suburbs.
Jaaks is ditching its upmarket, fine-dining pitch, and re-booting as a mezedopolio (tapas bar).
“Times have changed,” Uz says. “To me, degustation is a bit boring. Special occasion places, people need to plan [ahead]. [But, within our new format], you can [choose to] come for a couple of dishes, or a set menu.”
Greek food isn’t new turf for Uz, who worked at Jaaks when he arrived in Sydney in 2017. He’ll give the dishes his own twist: raw scallops served with ladolemono (olive oil and lemon sauce), ouzo and blood orange, and salmon belly substituted for pork in a retooled version of Cyprus sausages known as sheftalies.
“Food doesn’t have borders, Turkey and Greece share [many] common dishes,” he says.
A fresh new fish market
Sydney’s appetite for waterside restaurants will also be tested at the redeveloped Sydney Fish Market, where a flood of incoming venues is on the way. Good Food previously revealed Cammeray’s tiny, two-hatted omakase restaurant Sushi Oe has come on board with a new eight-seater.
It will be joined by Ichie, a Japanese restaurant focusing on coastal-style hamayaki seafood barbecue, as well as a restaurant from celebrity chef Luke Nguyen, and a spin-off from the popular Malaysian venue Ho Jiak.
The only question is: when will Sydneysiders be able to tuck in? With internal fitout already under way at some of the restaurants, and about to start at others, some incoming tenants at the Fish Market believe they could open within the next few months. But given the demand on Christmas trading at the market, others say early next year is a more realistic target.
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