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Replicating Sydney steakhouse 24 York, new venue 7 Alfred only asks diners to choose if they want their 220-gram Gippsland scotch fillet cooked medium or well done, and a sauce to go with it.
Melbourne’s first restaurant specialising in steak frites is opening in a storied restaurant site in the CBD this month.
It comes after Hunter St. Hospitality – the group behind Rockpool Bar & Grill, Spice Temple, Sake and more –launched a Sydney version of the dining concept in July.
Called 24 York for its street address in Sydney’s CBD, it got off to a flying start.
“We did just over 500 covers on the first day,” says Hunter St. Hospitality CEO Frank Tucker. “We wanted to prove we could get a steak on the table in 10 minutes – and we did.”
It’s only grown more popular. “The place is invariably rammed,” wrote Good Food’s Callan Boys in last weekend’s review of 24 York. “A new restaurant hasn’t captured the hearts and wallets of CBD workers like this one since Jamie’s Italian.”
Melbourne will get a slice of the steak when its counterpart 7 Alfred, also named for its address, arrives on October 22 in a grand three-storey space once used for Rockpool events, which was previously home to Stokehouse City and Mietta’s.
The formula will be identical to that in Sydney: one main, one side and one dessert.
The piece de resistance is steak and fries – the French bistro classic – with 7 Alfred looking to emulate the success-in-simplicity of such restaurants as Le Relais de l’Entrecote, which has been all about steak frites since it launched in France in 1959.
The star at 7 Alfred is a 220-gram grass-fed scotch fillet with a marble score of two, sourced from Gippsland producer O’Connor and served with a sauce, and fries cooked in beef tallow, for $48.
It’s the same cut of Gippsland beef that’s on the menu at Rockpool, decided on after multiple tastings – including a blind one – to compare flavour and texture between cuts.
By dedicating themselves to a single dish, “we’re trying to take the complexity out at a time when complexity is what is killing businesses,” says Tucker. Someone [in Sydney] asked: ‘When will you add another item [to the menu]?’ We won’t. It’s not a gimmick.”
It’s already paying off at 24 York, which Boys described as “the most consistent new restaurant in Sydney”.
At 7 Alfred, you – and everyone else – will be going for the steak frites. But there are still a few choices to make. Medium or well done? And which sauce: chimichurri, peppercorn, veal jus or umami butter?
“At a time when there’s a lot of trepidation [around the cost of dining out], you know what you’re going to get, you know what the price is ... and you’re not going to break the bank,” says Tucker.
Plus, there’s a guarantee that you can be in and out within half an hour.
The menu’s only extras are an $8 side salad, made with seasonal Victorian leafy greens, and a $12 New York-style cheesecake served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
Drinks will be affordably priced on the whole, but even more so during the daily happy hour, offering $7 beers, house wines and spirits as well as $12 martinis and negronis.
7 Alfred opens on October 22 at 7 Alfred Place, Melbourne, 7alfred.com.au
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