R&C November 2011

Restaurant

2011 SavourAustralia™

Restaurantof the Year

<Wisdom from Stratos Pouras of Adelaide's Cork & Cleaver, page 34 <No reservations, page 30 < How to extend your brand for fun and profit <The latest

trends in tableware, page 44 <Putting the bubbles in bubbly, page 52

Justin North reveals how Bécasse has grown into Australia's top restaurant

ALSO Caterer of the Year:How the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre overcame disaster to top the country's caterersANDAll the winners from the industry's night of nights!

Official Journal of

Restaurant & Catering

Catering november 2011 $6.95 GST incl.

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CONTENTS

In this issue ... COVER PHOTOGRAPHY

RESTAURANT & CATERING 3

Upfront4 From the Association:

More restaurants have closed than opened this year, but the stayers are more professional than ever…

6 News and events: Talk of a ‘no-show’ fee; Tassie seafood in peril; and more...

Wisdom30 No reservations

Adopting a no-bookings policy is more popular than ever, but how does it fit your restaurant?

34 What I’ve learntThe owner of Adelaide’s Cork & Cleaver on the secret to success and why being best isn’t always best

37 Top gearCreating a line of merchandise seems like smart business, but make sure you maintain your brand

Stuff40 New products

Our monthly round-up of the latest cutting-edge gadgets and stuff

42 Time machinesSoftware to help you manage labour costs

44 Table talkThe latest trends in tableware

49 Street smartsSometimes the best seat in the house isn’t inside at all

52 Ad some sparkleAdding to sparkling wine’s sense of mystique can only help sales

54 DetailsCo-owner Cam O’Brien and his team have converted a run-down store in a heritage-listed Brisbane building into a little piece of Rome

november 2011 $6.95 GST incl.

AmAndA PRiOR

20

2011 Savour Australia™ Awards for Excellence

16 Glittering prizeUnder the Big Top among the lights of Luna Park, the best of the best restaurateurs and caterers gathered to celebrate the winners of the Savour Australia™ Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS National Awards for Excellence

20 Restaurant of the Year Justin and Georgia North’s Bécasse Restaurant in Sydney has been named as Australia’s top place to dine

26 Caterer of the Year Kevin Gulliver and the talented team at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre have capped off a year of highs and lows with the award for Caterer of the Year

It is surprising how many people have commented about the number of new restaurant openings this year, when the statistics show, for the first time, the numbers are going backwards. Most would see a rash of high-profile openings, not feeling the large number of traditional, small, strip-

shop businesses that have closed. This masks an important sign of the times.The closures are generally of single unit operators with eight-to-10 staff that

cannot afford to stay open. They are not getting the revenue increases neces-sary to cover the increased cost of wages and occupancy costs. The openings are professional operators on their third or fourth business, able to generate some economy of scale back-of-house and have established systems.

There are some upsides to this trend. The industry is professionalising and larger business units may drive higher returns. The danger is that the small ‘mum-and-dad’ operation may no longer be viable at all. This is a case of the legislature changing our business forever. Ridiculously high wage and penalty rates, in par-ticular, mean that an industry that has survived through thick and thin will look very different in the future. It will be very interesting to see where things settle.

John Hart CEO, Restaurant & Catering

Open and shut caseFor the first time since records began, the rate of closure of businesses exceeded the opening rate

from the association

4 RESTAURANT & CATERING

Restaurant & Catering magazine is published under licence on behalf of Restaurant & Catering by Engage Custom Media, Suite 4.08, The Cooperage, 56 Bowman Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009 www.engagemedia.com.au

Editorial Director: Rob Johnson Creative Director: Tim Donnellan Sub-editor: Kerryn RamseyContributors: Sharon Aris, Nicole Azzopardi, John Burfitt, Ben Canaider, Kellie Morle, Kerryn Ramsey, Danielle Veldre

Commercial Director: Mark Brown Sales Director: Cameron Boon Direct: (02) 9660 6995 ext 502Fax: (02) 9518 5600Mobile: 0416 205 965Email: [email protected] all editorial, subscription and advertising enquiries, ph: 1300 722 878Print Post approved PP: 2255003/06505, ISSN 1442-9942

©2011 Engage Custom Media. Views expressed in Restaurant & Catering magazine are not necessarily those of Restaurant & Catering or that of the publisher, editor or Engage Custom Media.

Printed by Bright Print Group

Restaurant & Catering Restaurant & Catering’s mission: To lead and represent the Australian restaurant and catering industry.

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7,661 - CAB Audited as at March 2011

Restaurant & Catering AustraliaSuite 17, 401 Pacific highway, Artarmon NSW 20641300 RCAuST (722 878) Ph: (02) 9966 0055. Fax: 1300 722 396,Web: www.restaurantcater.asn.auRestaurant Guide: www.restaurant.org.auCaterers Guide: www.caterer.org.auEmail: [email protected]

President: Brien Trippas (NSW)Senior Vice President: Kevin Gulliver (QlD)Junior Vice President: Terry Soukoulis (SA)Treasurer: Richard harper (VIC)Chief Executive Officer: John hartR&C is a federation of the following associations, working together on national issues on behalf of their members.

Restaurant & Catering NSWPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (02) 1300 722 396Email: [email protected]: Ian Martin

Restaurant & Catering QLDPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (07) 3252 7554Email: [email protected]: Peter Summers

Restaurant & Catering ACTPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (02) 9211 3800Email: [email protected]: Fiona Wright

Restaurant & Catering SAPh: 8351 7837. Fax: (08) 8351 7839Email: [email protected]: Cath KerryChief Executive officer: Sally Neville

Restaurant & Catering TasPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (03) 6224 7988Email: [email protected]: Phil CaponGeneral Manager: Steve old

Restaurant & Catering VicPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (03) 9654 5286Email: [email protected]: Matteo Pignatelli

Restaurant & Catering WAPh: 1300 722 878. Fax: (08) 9328 7366Email: [email protected]: Paul Buckman

Clocking onMembers are looking for ways to manage labour costs, and your Association can help

As the year has come to a close the industry turnover results have started to tick up, and consequently it looks like the double dip has been avoided for the time being. It seems that once again a drop in consumer sentiment (in July) has driven a downward movement

mid-year, and as sentiment strengthened in the run up to the holiday season, revenues have slowly turned up. Recent survey data shows that the challenge this silly season will be getting staff to cover the shifts at a cost that makes it worthwhile. We know that more businesses will close on Sundays and Public holidays as the fine line of profitability in these service periods closes in. There is also pressure mounting at other periods in the roster. At an average now of 42 per cent of revenue, labour costs are even harder to control, but worth any attention paid to them. The Association is receiving more and more calls that are around effective rostering. Some of our members are going even further, and having a review of their employment practices, which might just mean squeezing an extra couple of percentage points out of the bottom line. I hope you have a profitable year-end after what as been a difficult year to navigate.

Brien TrippasPresident, Restaurant & Catering


Foundation Associate Members, and Associate Members: ALSCO • AON • APRA • Australian Mangoes • Bartercard • Coca-Cola Amatil • H&L Australia • Luigi Bormioli • Vittoria Coffee

Platinum Associate Members: American Express International • Bidvest • Westpac Banking Corporation

Gold Associate Members: Fine Wine Partners • Goodman Fielder Food Services • Lion Nathan • Meat & Livestock Australia • Treasury Wine Estates

Diamond Associate Member:

HOSTPLUS

Sydney newspaper has reported that some of the city’s top restaurants are fighting back against din-ers who book then don’t turn up by introducing a ‘no-show’ fee. Starting in January, for example,

Quay restaurant is planning to charge the full $165 set cost of a four-course meal on credit cards if diners fail to show up or can-cel at the last minute, the report in The Sunday Telegraph said.

The owner of Quay, John Fink, told the paper that charging cancellation fees was “distasteful” but the restaurant had been left with no option after a spate of no-shows on busy nights.

“Quay restaurant is now booked out until next year,” he explained. “My mother can’t get a booking. We have three dedi-cated staff just to deal with the bookings, so imagine how we feel when tables just do not turn up. It is very hurtful and rude.”

It doesn’t only happen at Quay. On the first weekend in October, a table of diners didn’t turn up at Sydney restaurant Marque. At the time chef Mark Best tweeted: “5 pax no show. 10% of seating = no profit for tonight.” Vicki Wild of Sepia was also quoted in the newspaper story, saying they also had a no-show fee of $50 per person, but had not yet charged it.

She said the restaurant minimised no-shows by taking a credit card impression for tables of four or more and getting two mobile numbers for each booking.

“People think we’re being really laborious but if people don’t

give us their credit card, we don’t take the booking,” Ms Wild said. “I look at it like this: if you’re going to buy theatre tickets and you don’t show up, then you still pay. It should be the same with restaurants.”

Mr Fink told the newspaper it had come to light that some diners were making bookings at several high-end Sydney restaurants on the same night and picking at the last minute which one they would dine at.

Some top end restaurants are talking about charging cancellation fees after a spate of no-shows on busy nights

Cancellation fees

News&events

Tassie scallop industry deadScallop prices may be affected in time for the summer rush following news that Tasmania’s scallop industry is virtually dead. In the 1980s, 100 boats harvested scallops around Tasmania and in Bass Strait. This season, eight were operating in the strait and half pulled out because it was uneconomical to keep going. Already, restaurants are struggling to get their hands on enough scallops to feed customer demand. Tasmanian Scallop Industry Association chairman John Hammond says the harvest can be summed up in a few words: “Dreadful—hopeless. We’ve taken our fishing gear off our boat. It’s just uneconomical.” Mr Hammond blames fisheries management which has seen quotas shrink the industry.

“We are not allowed to catch enough scallops to encourage the proces-sors we have left to invest in plant and equipment,” he told the ABC. He is also waiting for the Victorian Government to respond to a claim for compensation for the death of 24,000 tonnes of scallops in Bass Strait last year which fishers say were killed by seismic testing of the sea floor. The Victorian Department of Primary Industries says a study found there was no impact on the survival or health of the scallops after the seismic testing. Others, including conservationist groups, have suggested poorly managed fisheries in the past had a greater impact on scallop stocks.


Peter Gilmore of Quay is leading the way in charging ‘no-show’ fees to diners who book but don’t turn up.

bullacommercial.com.au

AU S T R A L I A N M A D E I AU S T R A L I A N OW N E D

News


&eventsA Melbourne icon changes handsThe Prince group of businesses, on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda owned by John and Lisa van Haandel, has been sold to the Melbourne Pub Group (MPG), whose purview already includes the Albert Park Hotel, the Middle Park Hotel and the renowned Newmarket Hotel. While the van Haan-dels remain the freehold owners of the Prince of Wales property, the sale takes in the Prince public bar, the property’s luxurious, boutique accommodation, the award-winning, two-chef’s-hat restaurant, Circa the Prince, Mink, Prince Bandroom and event space The Deck.

Julian Gerner, of the Melbourne Pub Group, says, “John and I have known each other for a long time and I was very excited about the opportunity. Apart from the iconic nature of the property, the major attraction was the infrastructure John had established.”

John van Haandel says, “Lisa and I are very proud of the hospitality culture we have built over the years and the legacy we pass on. I am extremely proud of the Prince and the last 15 years of developing a derelict hotel into an iconic and esteemed hospitality property, and I

wanted to ensure a viable and sustainable suc-cession for the businesses and the team.”

Mr van Haandel will now focus his energies on the apartment development above the hotel and a casual rooftop bar and eatery above Longrain, slated for 2012.

The Prince of Wales property in St Kilda, Melbourne.

Smart businesses in the food industry are discovering that the most subtle of our senses can also leave the deepest impression with consumers.

An investigation into the a�ects of fragrance on customer perceptions conducted by Swinburne University of Technology discov-ered that fragrance use was de�nitely linked to substantially increased customer percep-tions of the food and service quality.

Ambience is the key to success in cafes, retaurants and catering companies. Design, lighting, music and aroma all play important roles in enhancing the atmosphere. At Ecomist we recognise the importance of aroma in food industry & hospitality. Most restaurants & catering businesses now have recognised the bene�ts of using scent.

Ecomist fragrancing systems are fully serviced and maintained, no contracts, free trial and full warranty .

What members are doing … Award-winning Mexican restau-rant in Cremorne, Sydney, has an-nounced a name change from Vera Cruz to Vera Chu to reflect its new Chino-Latino fusion menu. “It is always good to be a step ahead,” says owner Annette Zubani, “and Asian has always been close to my heart.’’ She was an original owner at Fu Manchu, Darlinghurst.

Crown’s program of guest in-ternational chefs at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival next year will include renowned French pas-try chef Stephane Bour, who has worked alongside Marc Meneau and Marc Veyrat. Bour will work from the kitchens of Number 8.

CORRECTION In the October edition of Res-taurant & Catering magazine, due to an editorial oversight, we misspelled the name of Robert O’Callaghan and that of Rockford winery. We apologise unreservedly for the error.


Noosa Festival goes globalQueensland’s Noosa Food & Wine Festival has rebranded itself as the Noosa International Food & Wine Festival. The name change heralds a new focus on both Australian and international chefs and cooking identities as well as a global inter-est in the festival itself.

The festival has begun promot-ing next year’s event, which will run from May 17 to 20 in 2012, when two hundred of the world’s most prominent chefs, winemak-ers, media and food personalities descend upon Noosa and the Sunshine Coast.

The final details of the full pro-gram are being locked in but it has been confirmed that molecular gastronomist and ‘demon chef’ Alvin Leung of Bo Innovation in Hong Kong and Davide Scabin of Combal Zero in Turin Italy will both participate in the Qantas ‘Best Dinner in the World’ event. Each course of the degustation meal will be created by a different chef from the prestigious S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurant List. The list is created from The World’s Best Restaurants Academy, an influential group of over 800 international leaders in the restaurant industry, each selected for their expert opinion of the international restaurant scene.

Local restaurateur and festival director Jim Berardo is thrilled with the international focus of the 2012 festival. “We are proud to have built this event over eight years to something truly world class,” says Mr Berardo. “The festival originated to acknowledge and promote Australian produce, wine and talent. Now Australia has a real presence in the world of food and wine and we want to recognise this by including overseas talent.”

For further information on the festival go to: www.noosafoodandwine.com.au.

The Noosa Festival has gone all international

The whole city of Melbourne is now at your fingertips.Broadsheet Melbourne directory

iPhone app launchesThe Broadsheet Melbourne iPhone app gives users access to over 500 profiles of Melbourne’s best cafes, restaurants, bars and shops as selected by the Broadsheet editorial team. This new app allows users to search the best destinations in Melbourne based on location, price and themed features such as ‘Open Late’ or ‘Good Date Place’. The listings feature full-screen images, open-ing hours, full address details and Broadsheet write-ups.

The Broadsheet app features a first for a city guide with the ‘Nearby and Open’ option, which allows users to search quickly and easily for places nearby that are, most importantly, open at that time. Restaurant bookings can be made easily at participat-ing restaurants via the Dimmi real-time booking system or by contacting the venue directly via one-touch dialling.

To find out more, search for the Broadsheet Melbourne app in the Apple app store.

inspirationWhat’s yourWhat’s your

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To check card balance, card expiry & full conditions of use go to www.giftcardplanet.com.au

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Conditions apply, see www.whatsyourinspiration.com.au or www.unileverfoodsolutions.com.au Open to Aust. businesses. Starts: 1/11/11. Ends: 5pm AEDST 31/1/12. Entries must be submitted by an authorised representative of the business aged 18+. Retain original invoice/s. Aust. entries close 5pm 11/12/11, 12/1/12 & 31/1/12. Draws: 2pm AEDST 2.13, 29-31 Lexington Dr, Bella Vista, NSW 2153 12/12/11, 13/1/12 & 10/2/12 (for Aust.). Aust. winning businesses published in The Australian on 19/12/11, 20/1/12 & 17/2/12. Prizes (3x Aust.): winners’ choice of AU$6000 cheque (as applicable) OR dinner with 1 night’s hotel accommodation in same country business is located in for max. 8 adult staff valued at AU $6000 (as applicable). Promoter: Unilever Australia Ltd (ABN 66 004 050 828) of 20 Cambridge St, Epping NSW 2121. NSW Permit No. LTPS/11/9067 VIC Permit No. 11/2118.ACT Permit No. TP11/4044 SA Permit No. T11/2119 Conditions apply, see www.whatsyourinspiration.com.au or www.unileverfoodsolutions.com.au Open to Aust. & NZ residents 18+ who are employed as a chef in Aust./NZ. Ends: 11.59pm AEDST 31/1/12. Max 1 entry per entrant per promotional round. 12x prizes: choice of 1 ‘Food & Drink’ cookbook from Incremental

Marketing Group or 1 ‘Food, Wine & Travel’ magazine subscription from acpmagazines.com.au to the max value of $60.

“I am constantly changing the menu, I get inspiration from eating out, talking to people,

magazines, and books” ~

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“I really enjoy seeing the transition of a meal from

start to finish”~

John Deane Executive Chef - ANZ Stadium

Tell us ‘what inspires you?’ Visit www.whatsyourinspiration.com.au Simply answer the inspirational questions in 25 words or less and you could win a cookbook or magazine subscription of your choice to the value of $60 RRP. One prize awarded every week.

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News


&events

The life of SpiceIt’s both appropriate and ironic that tra-ditional Indian cooking earned the Spice Kitchen the top gong at the recent MLA Recipe Challenge in Adelaide. Appropri-ate because Spice Kitchen’s owner Ragini Dey has been a champion of authentic Indian cuisine for her entire career—first as a teacher in India, then working in hospitality here, and finally, owning her own restaurant. But she also didn’t want to be constrained by the past.

“When we opened 22 years ago, we just wanted five or six seasonal dishes, and we named it Spice Kitchen because we didn’t want to be limited to Indian food,” she says. “But the day we opened, all these people flooded in looking for authentic Indian. We got shaped by the market. We got pushed into being an Indian restaurant.”

For 11 years Ragini cooked at a retirement village where they were surprised that she cooked every meal from roast lamb to jam rolypoly to curried sausages. It was during this time and with two small children that

Ragini started her Indian takeaway store, the Spice Kitchen.

“I didn’t want to open a restaurant,” she says. “Then one day we went for a drive past this shopfront, and I thought it’s a nice area, but probably too expensive. But it was affordable. I didn’t do any research. There was a pub and a movie theatre nearby, but it was a cosmopolitan area, so it turned out to be quite a blessing.”

It was such a success that it expanded to include Indian cooking and spice ap-preciation classes and became renowned for making everything from scratch in the restaurant, right down to the pickles, chutneys and the spice mixes.

“We were the fourth Indian restaurant to open in Adelaide,” she says. “Now you have 200 or so. Obviously, back then, people didn’t know about ‘real’ Indian food.”

Ragini has also published two cookery books and her restaurant has won numerous awards including the national Best Indian Restaurant Savour award in

2009. Ragini continues to create innova-tive modern Indian cuisine based on centuries-old recipes and traditions.

Ragini and her team got involved in the Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) recipe challenge—which involved cooking using secondary cuts of meat—because she already had experience working with them, especially with using goat as a protein. “For us, this challenge was not too ground breaking as we love to use secodary cuts,” she says. “We ended up doing a plate of three different things.” The Spice Kitchen’s dish showed off the majestic medley of lamb using forequarter lamb mince tandoori kabas on sweet potato bhurta; lamb riblets slow cooked in an aromatic broth and crispy fried with eggplant balchao; and a lamb nexk and beetroot curry with checkpea flour and fenugreek rota.

“In India you eat meat with lots of other things, so we wanted that to come through,” she says. “I think that made a lot of difference. It was a balance of flavours and textures.”

Above left: Judging in the MLA Recipe Challenge

in Adelaide. Above right: Ragini Dey.

Cookers refuses to use palm oil... Your choice.

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The Cookers System respects the environment and you in many ways. Not only does the unsustainable production of palm oil threaten orang-utan habitat, the oil is high in saturated fat and increases the risk of heart disease.

Cookers supply only high quality healthy cooking oils, plus no tin waste goes to land fill. You pay only for the oil you use and your waste oil is used as bio diesel.

Its time to make a sensible choice.

For more information phone 1300 882 299 or visit www.cookers.com.au

Cookers are proud sponsors of the Melbourne Zoo’s

“Don’t Palm us Off” campaign.

Nov—Dec 2011

Join a three-day tutorial on the making and marketing of frozen

morsels at the Ice Cream & Gelato University, at FHC China in Shanghai on November 16-18.

Visit www.fhcchina.com

what’s on

17Australian entries in the

International Wine & Spirit Competition have been waiting

since August for tonight’s awards banquet in London. Visit www.iwsc.net

16Wrest Point Royal Hobart

International Wine Show runs on November 12-18 with awards

night on November 16. Visit www.hobartshowground.com.au/

wineshow

Nov15

Over 3000 tasty cheeses are being judged at the World

Cheese Awards in Birmingham, UK, on Nov 23-27. Visit

www.finefoodworld.co.uk

23‘Safe and Healthier Food for all Australians’ is the theme of the

National Food Futures Conference in Hobart. On November 22-23;

visit www.phaa.net.au

22More action in Victoria with

Gnocchi Fiesta at Pizzini Wines all weekend (www.pizzini.com.au).

20Prefer pale ale or pinot grigio?

Pop in at Beerfest in Hobart (www.tasmanianbeerfest.com.au) or the Brown Brothers Wine

& Food Festival in Victoria (www.brownbrothers.com.au).

Melbourne hosts the gala dinner for the Telstra Business

Women’s Awards: www.businesswomensawards.

telstra.com.

18

Invite staff and clients to a private pre-Christmas marquee at the

annual Harvest Picnic at Werribee Park, Victoria. For bookings, visit

www.harvestpicnic.com.au

27Add some twinkle to your

establishment during the silly season. For design, supply

and installation—and hire services—visit Dovecote Design at www.dovecotedesign.com.au

26Join the who’s who of the food industry at the South Australian Premier’s Food Industry Awards presentation gala dinner. Visit www.safoodawards.com.au

25The National Wine Show of

Australia awards are announced at Hotel Realm in Canberra. For

bookings, call (02) 6241 2478 or visit www.rncas.org.au

24

Lifestyle Food channel’s ‘I Love Food’ awards are back! The

online trade kit is available for all Australian eat-outs. Visit lifestyle.

com.au/trade

Dec1There’s a little bit of roasting in

Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with the CSR Golden Bean competition and conference in Caloundra on November 30-December 4. Visit

www.cafebiz.net

30‘Eating Green: Foods and Diets,

Attitudes and Policies’ is one of the topics at the Nutrition Society of Australia and NZ

conference in Queenstown, NZ. Visit www.nsa.asn.au

29The Great BBQ and the Valley Feast

are delectable delights at the Fremantle Festival, WA. Keep up to date at www.facebook.com/

fremantlefestival

28

Book early for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival which

celebrates its 20th anniversary on March 2-21. Visit www.

melbournefoodandwine.com.au or www.ticketek.com.au

7Peruse Murdoch Books’ pre-

Christmas cookbook releases: Rockpool Bar and Grill ($79.99), MoVida Cocina ($49.99), Zumbo ($49.99) and Insatiable by Tony

Bilson ($39.99).

6The Fine Food juggernaut

continues with the debut of the Indian event on December 5-7 in New Delhi. Visit www.

finefoodindiaexpo.com

5Verve, Tribaut and Billecart Salmon are just some of the champers to sip at South Africa’s Franschhoek

‘Magic of Bubbles’ Cap Classique & Champagne Festival on December 2-4. Visit www.franschhoek.org.za

4Dan Hunter of Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, Victoria, is the celebrity

chef at the Great Barrier Reef Feast on Hamilton Island on December 2-4. Visit www.qualia.com.au/

great-barrier-feast.aspx

2

Take part in the long-table lunch and cherry pip-spitting contest at the 10th anniversary of the Manjimup Cherry Harmony

Festival in WA all weekend. Visit www.cherryfestival.com.au

Searching for gifts for your staff? Visit www.chefsgreatest.com.au to order everything from Carl

Mertens lobster tongs to Rosti Mepal stirrer spoons.

10

11

Join the six-week DineSmart charity, where customers are

asked to add a $2 donation to help the homeless. Register online at www.streetsmartaustralia.org/

dinesmart

9Make sure diners are aware of your Christmas gift vouchers,

hampers and personal products by promoting your offers on

Facebook, Twitter, website and face to face.

8

Not everything is silly this season. Dissect the Hospitality

Industry (General) Award at the Workplace Relations Forum in Melbourne. Visit ahavictoria.

worldsecuresystems.com

15Check your stock, book your staff and keep your sanity…only 10

days to go til Christmas day.

14Salvation Army plans to distribute

150,000 food vouchers this month. To donate, simply give

non-perishable food items. Visit salvos.org.au/christmas/how-to-

help/food-and-gifts.php

13


19

An ocean of possibilities.

Moving with the times is a key ingredient to a

successful business. So now is the time to excite your

regular guests and entice new ones by incorporating

delicious, nutritious and versatile Australian avocados

in both hot and cold dishes throughout your menu.

From sumptuous starters to mouth-watering mains and

decadent desserts, Australian avocados add a delectable

twist to the texture and taste of just about

any dish imaginable. For instance, zesty yuzu

infused avocado with fresh tuna is a creative twist

on a classic combination.

So why not explore the culinary opportunities of

Australian avocados today?

HC

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TITLE: HCA0206_297X210_4C DATE: 05/10/11 REVISION No: #01 PROOF No: #01

ARTWORK SIZE: 297X210mm COL: CMYK INK WEIGHT: 290% RES/DPI: 300 dpi

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Glittering prizeUnder the Big Top among the shimmering lights of Luna Park, the best of the best restaurateurs and caterers gathered to celebrate the winners of the Savour Australia™ Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS National Awards for Excellence

2011 AwARdS FOR ExCELLENCE

On an unseasonably warm Sydney night last month, Bécasse Restaurant in Sydney was named as Australia’s top place

to dine in the 2011 Savour Australia™ Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS National Awards for Excellence. Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Brisbane was named as Australia’s Caterer of the Year.

The National Awards for Excellence are the culmination of 10 regional awards events held throughout the year across Australia. Over 270 finalists in 34 categories competed at a ceremony at Luna Park, Sydney, to determine the best of the best of Australia’s restaurants and caterers.

Addressing the crowd at the

beginning of the night, R&C President Brien Trippas pointed out that the system of judging was the most objective in the country. “The RACE system provides the most clear and transparent assessment of both restaurants and caterers against standard criteria,” he said.

“You can also be proud of your association. We have streamlined the operation of the association with the clear objective of providing better service to our members. This translates to better advice, more information on what’s happening in our industry and better relationships with government. Like the awards, this too lays a great foundation for years to come.”

Mr Trippas also acknowledged the hard work the association had done in Canberra with a government which was

“in disarray”. “At the national level, we have been able to make some significant headway,” he said. “Amazingly, we have been able to get the prohibition on weekend and public holiday surcharges overturned.

“We have also seen the awards system and the plate ratings recognised under the Tourism Quality Framework. This means when you get your plate rating this year, you will automatically be recognised as a quality tourism business—as well you should be.”

Mr Trippas also pointed out some of the other challenges that existed over the past 12 months for restaurateurs, and how the association has quietly helped. “The industry is being taken seriously and is continuing to make incremental improvements in this tough


operating environment. We have made representations on tax, education and training, IR, food safety, employment, food security, agriculture, immigration, business regulation and in many more areas of government interference. In each of these areas we have stopped some further encroachment into your business. While this work generally goes unnoticed, it is a vital service to ensure the regulatory

burden to you is minimised,” he said.On the subject of the awards

themselves, Restaurant & Catering CEO John Hart said, “The Awards for Excellence represent an important moment as the industry pauses to honour these outstanding venues that have been reviewed on the whole dining experience rather than a single dimension.

“The calibre of finalists this year has been of an extremely high level and competition has been fierce. This is a definite sign that business is strengthening and that the industry is growing and developing.

“We congratulate all of the finalists in the 2011 National Awards. Their achievements in providing great food and great service are themselves a wonderful contribution to our vibrant industry, let

alone being a national finalist.” The regional Awards for Excellence

are judged by a team of trained judges who anonymously visit the venues to determine the winners. Certain winners from each of the regional events go through to become finalists at a national level. Venues are not re-judged. National winners are determined by whichever venue achieved the highest score in that particular category.

Restaurant & Catering represents over 4000 restaurants and caterers across Australia. Each year over 900 members are reviewed nationally in the Awards for Excellence.

On the next page, see a complete list of category winners in the 2011 Savour Australia™ Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS National Awards for Excellence.

“You can also be proud of your association. We have streamlined the operation of the association with the clear objective of providing better service to our members.”Brien Trippas, President, Restaurant & Catering

This page: Kinetic Method provided

the musical backdrop to the

awards. Opposite page: All the

winners of this year’s awards.


Restaurant of The Year – Bécasse, Sydney, NSW Caterer of The Year – Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, QLD

restaurant aWards Asian Restaurant – sushi e, Sydney, NSW Breakfast Restaurant – The Hub Espresso Bar & Eatery, Bathurst, NSW BYO Restaurant – Mons Ban Sabai Thai Garden Restaurant, Camp Hill, QLD Café Restaurant – Café Vue At 401 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria Chinese Restaurant – Peacock Gardens Restaurant, Crows Nest, NSW Coffee Shop / Tea House – Ampersand in Paddington Cafe Bookstore, Paddington, NSW Contemporary Australian Restaurant – Sepia Restaurant, Sydney, NSWEntertainment Restaurant – Live & Cookin’ at Lizotte’s Newcastle, Lambton, NSW European Restaurant – Bécasse, Sydney, NSW Family Restaurant – La Vita Cafe Ristorante, Kidman Park, SA Fine Dining Restaurant – Eleonore’s Restaurant, Yering, VIC Greek Restaurant – Medusa Greek Taverna, Sydney, NSW Indian/Sub-Continent Restaurant – Shanker’s Authentic Indian Cuisine, Prospect, SA Informal Dining Restaurant – Meadowbank Estate, Cambridge, TAS Italian Restaurant – Ormeggio At The Spit, Mosman, NSW New Restaurant – Hare & Grace, Melbourne, VIC Pizza Restaurant – Bon Aroma, Bulli, NSWRestaurant in a Hotel / Motel / Resort – The Terrace, Thredbo Village, NSW Restaurant in a Pub / Club / Tavern – La Tratt, Fairfield, NSW Restaurant in a Winery – Nine Restaurant, Pokolbin, NSW Seafood Restaurant – Garfish Manly, Manly, NSW Specialty Restaurant – Kazbah Balmain, Balmain, NSW Steak Restaurant – The Point Albert Park, Albert Park, VIC Thai Restaurant – Paladarr Thai Issan, Alphington, VICTourism Restaurant – Room81 @ The Sofitel, Broadbeach, QLD

CaterinG aWards Corporate Caterer – Beaumonde Catering, Bassendean, WA Events Caterer – Fresh Catering, Redfern, NSW Function / Convention Centre Caterer – Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, South Brisbane, QLD Industrial / Institutional Caterer – Scolarest - Flinders Hall of Residence, Bedford Park, SARestaurant Caterer – Reef Restaurant, Terrigal, NSW Site-Contract Caterer – Eurest, Hewlett Packard, Lockleys, SA Small Caterer – Hugos Catering By Pete Evans, Kings Cross, NSW Venue Caterer – Peter Rowland Catering, Albert Park, VIC Wedding Caterer – Roux Blond, South Townsville, QLD Green Table Award For Excellence in Environmental Sustainability – Compass Group, McMahons Point, NSW George Mure Memorial Professional Development Award – Crown Melbourne Food & Beverage Training, Southbank, VIC

all the Winners

2011 AwARdS FOR ExCELLENCE

From the top down: R&C President Brien Trippas holding the award for Restaurant of the Year; Mangoes Australia ambassador Tobie Puttock addresses the crowd; the buzz under the Big Top at Luna Park.

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2011 AwArds For ExcEllEncE

ou would imagine that by now Justin North would be getting a bit blasé about awards. Back in his native New Zealand in

the ’90s, he achieved the title of Commis Chef of the Nation at the Culinary Olympics. A year after that he was named New Zealand Appren-tice Chef of the Year. In 2007 he was named R&C’s Young Achiever. In 2008 he was named SMH Good Food Guide Chef of the Year.

Now he’s picked up the awards for European Restaurant and Restaurant of the Year in the 2011 Savour Australia™ Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS National Awards for Excellence. But he still sounds excited by the latest win. “It’s fantastic for all the staff and a big boost for morale,” he says.

It wasn’t something he had prepared for. “It came as a complete surprise. That particular award would be hard to prepare for anyway, because you don’t know who the reviewers are when they come in to dine.”

It caps off quite an interesting year for the Justin and his partner in business and life, Geor-gia, who started with shifting Bécasse into the revamped Westfield development in the middle of Sydney’s CBD. Originally the shopping centre

approached them with the idea of doing a cafe there, but the Norths had already been discuss-ing their next move, so the approach had come at a serendipitous time.

“We’ve grown with the business,” North explains. “We never had any formal business training. When we started Bécasse, I was 25 and she was 23, and I was running the kitchen and she ran the floor. We did the accounts at 1am after we’d closed. Now there’s 200 of us running it. Some people have been with us for 10 years. So it’s not just about us, but also about the man-agement team around us. We had grown a lot in the last few years, and we realised if we were to do anything else, we had to have a different infrastructure. We were bursting at the seams in terms of the organisation. We needed to look at the whole infrastructure.”

No stranger to praise herself, Georgia North picked up Gourmet Traveller’s Australian Som-melier of the Year in 2005, and had previously managed some of Sydney’s top restaurants before she and Justin launched Bécasse in 2001. A few years later they moved from their original site in Surry Hills to Clarence Street in the city, where the restaurant had room to expand.

They did have a vision of sorts, of a combined restaurant, retail outlet and cooking school. “Originally we had wanted to do the same con-cept in a warehouse conversion in the suburbs,” says North, “but the amount of capital required to do it would have been huge, so it would have been very risky.” So the idea stayed on the back-burner until the Westfield offer materialised.

Following a controversial move to a shopping centre this year, Justin and Georgia north’s Bécasse restaurant in sydney has been named as Australia’s top place to dine

“wE’vE Grown with thE BusinEss. wE nEvEr hAd Any FormAl BusinEss trAininG. whEn wE stArtEd BécAssE, i wAs 25 And shE wAs 23, And i wAs runninG thE kitchEn And shE rAn thE Floor. wE did thE Accounts At 1Am AFtEr wE’d closEd. now thErE’s 200 oF us runninG it.”Justin North , Bécasse

Justintime

PHOTOGRAPHY: AmANDA PRIOR

Justin North, co-owner of Bécasse,

Restaurant of the Year.PHOTOGRAPHY: AmANDA PRIOR


“It was a bit outside the square for them,” North says. “Their plan was simply that they wanted to lift the level of the food on offer in the shopping centre. There was a bit of back and forth for the better part of a year, but we had to get it right before we went in there. But they have been very supportive.”

The result is called Quarter Twenty One and encompasses a modern European restaurant, a retail shop selling premium ingredients and take home meals and a cooking school. In-spired by the food retail in Paris, hence ‘Quar-ter’, while Twenty One refers to the weight of one’s ‘soul’, Westfield describes it as “a com-mitment to Justin and Georgia’s passion and vision… a vital return to real food that feeds the soul and nourishes your entire being”.

It’s an extension of ideas North has been pursuing in person and in print for a fair part of the past decade, speaking out about issues around sustainability in many places including The New York Times, where he published a passionate plea for restaurateurs to consider to providence of the food they cook.

Although there was nothing like Quarter Twenty One in Sydney, North has cited inter-national examples like New York restaurant Per Se (located in the Time Warner building), food emporiums such as the fifth floor of Harvey Nichols in London and shopping, dining and entertainment districts like Ginza in Tokyo.

But despite the growth of the Norths’

empire—which currently encompasses Etch Restaurant, Charlie & Co. burger bar and Le Grand Café at the Alliance Française Centre Building, as well as the Quarter Twenty One precinct—North’s primary focus remains on Bécasse. “The heart and soul of creativity is Bécasse, and that’s where we spend most of our time,” he explains. “Everyone else has their own responsibility but Bécasse is our baby. I still look after the kitchen and Georgia still looks after the front of house.”

one unique element of the Norths’ win this year has been the classifica-tion within which they were judged. In previous years, Restaurant of the

Year has been drawn from the various winners of the Fine Dining Restaurant award, reflecting fine dining as the pinnacle of the profession. Of course, there’s no reason why the winner of Restaurant of the Year has to be a fine dining establishment: finalists are selected from the winners of the regional Awards for Excellence, which in turn are judged by a team of trained judges who anonymously visit the venues. Cer-tain winners from each of the regional events go through to become finalists at a national level. National winners are determined by achieving the highest score in that particular category.

North sees the distinction between the ‘Euro-pean’ and ‘fine dining’ categories as being purely reflective of cuisine. “Bécasse is a hard one to

“thE hEArt And soul oF crEAtivity is BécAssE, And thAt’s whErE wE spEnd most oF our timE. EvEry-onE ElsE hAs thEir own rEsponsiBil-ity But Bé-cAssE is our BABy. i still look AFtEr thE kitchEn And GEorGiA still looks AFtEr thE Front oF housE.”Justin North, Bécasse


categorise for other people,” he says. “You don’t categorise your-self. But in terms of how we’ve evolved, we started doing regional French food, and in that first five years we became a lot more modern European in terms of where our inspiration came from. Now we find a lot of influences from Asia. It’s a tricky one because you’re constantly evolving. maybe we’re just contemporary.”

Part of it could be the restaurant’s avoidance of the formal-ity of fine dining service, while embracing the highest possible standards in cuisine. Certainly some in the industry have noticed a distinctly informal approach to service in some of the country’s top restaurants. But North thinks that’s merely a reflection of the clientele.

“I think the casualness is driven by customers,” he says. “Older European guests like the more formal thing that comes with traditional fine dining. To me it’s about trying to find the right balance: knowing when to have a laugh and engage with the customer, and when to pull back.” Whatever the case, there’s no doubt the award reflects the strengths of the partnership between Justin and Georgia, as well as the extended team around them. After having worked so closely together for so many years, Justin is at first at a bit of a loss to describe how they complement each other. After a while, he sums up the business partnership as saying, “I’m more on the creative side and more outgoing, and she’s a lot more reserved and keeps our feet on the ground.” A task that, with these new awards, may seem a little bit harder.

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Above: Georgia and Justin North in Bécasse. Opposite page: North in the kitchen, and (right) the entrance to Bécasse at Westfield.




or a year that started pretty badly for the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre’s (BCEC) catering staff, 2011 has ended pretty well. In January theirs was one of the first properties affected by the devastating

floods that ripped through the city. “For those people who stayed in to mind the building, it was like a big land barge,” says Kevin Gulliver, food and beverage director of the BCEC. “We were 14 acres of boat. The water came through the administration and service areas, but thank-fully no event spaces were affected. There were five mega-litres of water in the car park, which did huge damage to infrastructure.”

By contrast, 10 months and two weeks later, he’s running late for the Savour Australia™ Res-taurant & Catering HOSTPLUS National Awards for Excellence because he’s ensuring the Queen is enjoying her BCEC lunch. He doesn’t make it in time to receive the award for Best Function/Convention Centre Caterer in Australia, which the BCEC has won for the third time in the past

five years. But he does get there in time to pick up their gong for Caterer of the Year.

These latest wins bring the centre’s total awards tally to 117 of which 56 are for catering. Furthermore, says Gulliver, its recognition of the high standard the team hold themselves to despite a staggering number of customers pass-ing through their door. “We’ve been open for 16 years and only missed out of competing in one awards in that time, and that was because it was a busy year,” he says. “But we have a thousand events a year, and in between 700,000 and one million customers come through the doors each year. And we’ve got the Grey Street centre opening early next year and will add another 30 per cent to our business, making us equal to the biggest convention centre in Australia.

“We’ve been competing for 14 years, and al-ways been a finalist. We don’t go out of our way to change one thing that we do during the judg-ing process. But it is the centre’s entire team who deserve the accolades. We all work to one goal,” says Gulliver.

Convention centre general manager Bob O’Keeffe believes this national recognition is at the very heart of the centre’s operational reputation and Brisbane’s ongoing appeal as a successful business destination.

“I believe our entire food philosophy,

Kevin Gulliver and the team at the Brisbane convention and Exhibition centre have capped off a year of highs and lows with the award for caterer of the Year

“I BElIEvE our Food phIlosophY, culturE And prActIcEs oF sourcInG onlY thE vErY BEst oF our locAl sEAsonAl producE whEn wE cAn hAs plAYEd A pArt In our succEss.”Bob O’Keeffe, BCEC GM

Kevin Gulliver, food and beverage director at the Brisbane Convention

and Exhibition Centre.



culture and practices of sourcing only the very best of our local seasonal produce when we can has played a part in our success, and our commitment to sustainability remains paramount,” he says.

Brisbane Convention and Exhibi-tion Centre is owned by South Bank Corporation and managed by international venue manage-ment specialists AEG Ogden.

AEG Ogden is a joint venture between Austra-lian interests and AEG Facilities of the United States. AEG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company, is the leading sports, en-tertainment and venue operator in the world. The company manages venues throughout the Asia Pacific region, including the Cairns, Darwin and Kuala Lumpur Convention Cen-tres, the Qatar National Convention Centre (currently under construction), Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Sydney’s Acer Arena, the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and the Newcastle Entertainment Centre, the Perth Arena (currently under construction) and

live theatres including Perth’s His Majesty’s Theatre and the Perth Concert Hall.

Although the centre is very internationally-focused—“We’re competing on a world stage, a national stage and a local stage,” says Gulliv-er—it is also a very active member of its local community. The centre sources 80 per cent of its food product within Queensland, and where possible, within a 100km radius of Brisbane, ful-filling a commitment to use fresh, seasonal pro-duce wherever possible and reduce food miles. And they also show a serious commitment to dealing with waste, contributing much of their excess product to Food Bank, Australia’s largest hunger relief organisation. To date the centre has donated in excess of 60,000 pre-packaged meals to Food Bank to help feed Brisbane’s homeless, and supplies an average of 1000 litres of soup every month to homeless shelters.

It must have been tempting, back in January, to allow the enormity of the damage wrought by the Brisbane flood to give pause to the pace of operations, but Gulliver and the team were up and running rapidly. “We were the first flood-affected property to get our

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“wE wErE thE FIrst Flood-AFFEctEd propErtY to GEt our Food sErvIcE cErtIFIcAtE BAcK. wE Got All our stAFF In And wIthIn two dAYs hAd clEAnEd thE KItchEn, thE storEroom, And thE AdmIn oFFIcEs.”Kevin Gulliver,

BCEC food and beverage director

food service certificate back,” he says. “We got all our staff in and within two days had cleaned the kitchen, the storeroom, and the admin offices.” Obviously there were longer-term ef-fects and costs involved—including putting back the opening of the centre’s new Grey Street premises—but Gulliver seems more excited by what’s transpired since. The visit from the Queen back in October was a highlight, obviously, but not just for her international celebrity, but because the centre got the

chance to showcase some First Fleet let-tuce in the entree. Not an original lettuce (that would be a bit soggy by now), but grown from seeds that have been germi-nated from lettuce that originally came over in the First Fleet, it was supplied to the centre by Gardening Australia presenter Jerry Coleby-Williams. Gulliver proudly reports she ate the whole entree.

Convention centre general manager, Bob O’Keeffe said what remains important to all who work in food and beverage is the won-derfully encouraging feedback and many

compliments the centre receives about its catering from clients both in Australia and from around the world.

It was particularly pleasing, he said, to receive these awards prior to the new BCEC on Grey Street expansion opening early in the New Year. “We will be adding to the catering menu of events and offerings in Grey Street and it is reassuring to know that we are in a strong position going forward with some very exciting new plans.”

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*Go ahead, if we are wrong we’ll gladly send you an iPad 2. But don’t hold your breath.P.S. Part jelly beans count as one whole jelly bean.

BCEC’s excecutive chef Martin Latter (right) used First Fleet lettuce to feed the Queen at her lunch date at the centre.



Management

reservationsNo

“I just think that if we did have a bookings policy, it could slow the whole pace down. It might also mean we work on one sitting instead of two, and that significantly drops the revenue we take.”

Location, Olenek concedes, plays a major role in determining the success of the policy. With Royal Saxon located in the busy inner-Melbourne suburb of

Richmond, it is exposed to regular traffic of passing local people.

“You have to be well aware of the demographics of your customer base and the kind of customers you are aiming at and the menu you have on offer,” he says.

“If you have a younger, more urban crowd who are

happy to drop in, then not taking bookings will suit. If you

have an older, more conservative audience, then they will want to be able to book.

“You just do not want to be turn-ing people away, so if you don’t take bookings, you had better be sure you can accommodate them and have a system that works. Make sure you can build the customers’ confidence in what you are doing. It won’t work if they do come down and are sitting around for an hour and a half.”

ccording to restaurant industry consultant Jonn Close, the modern Australian diner is showing signs of a very modern social dilemma.

“There definitely is a problem with commitment,” Close says. “That is the biggest risk you encounter with bookings these days, as people are notoriously unreliable in honour-ing that commitment.

“Even if people have made a booking, there is a low level of respect in relation to turning up and honouring that commit-ment. Many customers just don’t see that as a priority.”

Not surprisingly, Close is an advocate of restaurants adopting a no-bookings policy, believing it makes for easier running of a business. “I think less and less restaurants are taking bookings these days, as we have tended towards more casual dining,” he says. “If it is more of a high-end dining experience, then you would tend to take bookings. If not, you probably wouldn’t. I just see that the big problem with taking bookings is being let down—I know, I have been there and put up with it.”

This new approach to bookings follows a general change in Australian society’s attitude to the dining expe-rience. Close makes the observation, “Once people went out to dine, now they go out to eat—and that is a big difference.

“There has been a casualisation of restaurants. Now if you turn up to a restaurant and there is nothing available, that is okay. It is not the only restaurant in town, so you go around the corner and check out the next one. It won’t take long to find one that will welcome you in.”

Embracing that casual attitude to dining, rather than working against it, Paul Olynyk of Melbourne’s Royal Saxon adopted a no-booking policy for his 18-month-old restau-rant. “We made a very clear decision that casual dining and quality could work hand in hand,” he says. “A local venue that does not take bookings makes it easier for custom-ers to use. It can be argued that it is actually the other way around, but we wanted our customers to feel they could drop in at any time.

Adopting a no-bookings policy is more popular than ever, but what is a perfect fit for one restaurant, can be a disaster in another. John Burfitt reports

“I just think if we did have a bookings policy, it could slow

the whole pace down. It might also mean

we work on one sitting instead of two, and that significantly drops the revenue.”

Paul Olynyk, Royal Saxon, Melbourne

Elvis Abrahamovitz (left) and Ben Milgate of Bodega

in Sydney have mastered the balance between expected

trade and orders.


Management

“Systems are what count. You have to make sure the staff is ready to serve to big groups, and the kitchen is prepped and all set to pump out 50 meals.”Will Brennan, Mecca Bah,

Brisbane

O’Donoghue from Brisbane’s South Bank Surf Club actually abandon the no-bookings policy. Within nine months of opening its doors, the restaurant changed direction and put a reservation system in place.

“It has just worked better for us,” O’Donoghue says. “In terms of turnover, it is not actually that different. But in terms of us being in control, it is much more efficient now.

“We also found we can work our rosters better, and table man-agement and staff management are far more efficient.

“We can stagger the number of people coming into the restau-rant, and control that inflow so the kitchen can cope. We would sometimes have 100 people turn up at midday for lunch, and the kitchen would just get slammed.”

Initially, O’Donoghue said he had been inspired by the operations of some restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, and assumed the same style would work in South Bank. The habits of Brisbane diners, however, changed his mind.

“We found Brisbane is a dif-ferent market and people plan things a bit more,” he says.

“We also found a lot of people were making decisions about whether or not to come here based on whether they could make a booking.

“We also eliminated the dis-gruntled nature of customers straight away. That was the worst thing of all—dealing with people who were unhappy that they could not book. We had a lot of people complain.”

And the satisfaction of a happy customer should never, Royal Saxon’s Paul Olynyk insists, be taken lightly.

“The most important thing you need to ask is this—is this policy really pleasing more people than it is annoying?” he says. “Because at the end of the day, it has to be all about people having a good time while under the roof of your business.”

Working with a no-bookings policy has proven something of a shock to the operating system for Will Brennan of Brisbane’s Mecca Bah. “This is the first time I have ever worked in a place that operates like this, and it took a while to adjust,”

he admits. “You have to be on your toes all the time because you can have 20 people walking through the door, and you have to be ready for them. We stick to our systems and providing we have those sys-tems in place, it is never an issue. Systems are what count. You have to make sure the staff is ready to serve to big groups, and the kitchen is prepped and all set to pump out 50 meals.”

While the no-bookings policy has many supporters, it is a move that is not suitable across the board. For some restaurant owners, a no-booking policy appears too risky to contemplate. With no idea of anticipated trade, it would appear no planning can be done for the night ahead, let alone how many staff will be required or what levels of stock must be ordered in.

“You have to base your ordering on week-to-week trade,” Sarah Doyle of Sydney’s Bodega restaurant says. Bodega opened five years ago and has never worked with bookings.

“You generally know for each day of the week the kind of crowd you attract, and so you plan for that. You notice the trends and plan

around that.” But restaurants that don’t take bookings also run the risk of alienating customers who want a guaranteed table when heading out to dine. When Longrain opened in Melbourne’s Little Bourke Street two years ago, one newspaper critic took issue with the restaurant’s dinner no-bookings policy, and even went so far as to suggest that it was “arrogant”.

“People are going to complain one way or another—you can not please everyone,” Doyle says. “People get mad when they call on a Friday and can’t make a reservation for a group of five on Saturday. Then they also get mad when they arrive and can’t just walk in.

“I think you have to do what is best for the majority of your cus-tomers and what is really best for your business.”

Listening to what his customers really wanted is what made Ben

Brisbane’s Mecca Bah has found a no-bookings policy a shock.


The owner of Adelaide’s Cork & Cleaver on the secret to success and why being best isn’t always best. By Sharon Aris

In 1959 when I was 22 I met a friend and asked him for work in his milk bar in Rundle Street. He said he didn’t have a job at the milk bar but he did in a restaurant. He said “come in at 7pm on Saturday night”. I was there at 5 o’clock. From that first night I knew this was what I’d do the rest of my life. I stayed there six years. By the end I was running the place. The chef there became my mentor. He taught me a lot about food and service. I carry him to this day inside me.

Then a friend called me and said, “You know how I’ve been saying we’d go into business together—we should.” But by then I had three baby children so I said, “I don’t have the funds.” He said, “You don’t, but I do.” We took over Swains Seafood. It became an icon overnight. In six months, I was a full partner.

In 1978 we decided we needed a steak restaurant to complement the success of the seafood restaurant. There was an empty block in walking distance of Swains. By this time I was able to buy in myself.

I had a friend who lived in Tucson, Arizona who mentioned there was a chain there called ‘Cork & Cleaver’. I went there with my wife to see it. It was Mexican decor, onion and garlic on the walls, and a very limited menu: three steaks, a soup, salad and dessert. We decided that would not be enough for Adelaide. I took the name, adding my name in front of it. I drew customers from Swains and dressed up the new menu to suit the clients.

There have been very few changes since. Our menu is engraved on a cleaver—though we have daily specials as well.

In 1988 my mentors and I divorced. That hurt me a lot. They bought me out of Swains, I bought them out of Cork & Cleaver. Swains is no more which is very sad.

I have spent my time 100 per cent front of house. At the same time I maintain a close relationship with back. We got on extremely well. All I have to do is start talking about what I want and they know—we’re like a family.

I prefer to be a favourite restaurant rather than ‘the best’. ‘Best restaurant’ today is second best tomorrow. ‘Best restaurant’ could be the opinion of one vote—one gets 20 votes, another 21. But a favourite restaurant is always a favourite. People consider a favourite restaurant as an extension of their home. So it needs to be as good as the last time they were here.

The secret is consistent quality, friendly service, courtesy to everyone who walks in the door. We have many regulars, clientele who have grown with me. The staff also; some have been here 33, 30, 25 years.

You have to keep your ears to the ground too. Listen to your customers. You feel the pulse of the market. Then

do changes, but not too drastic. Easy does it. Little changes for the better, but no cutting corners—do

not use margarine instead of butter.

With business lunches, you need to know when to up speed. If they have to be back at the office at 2.15pm, you work backwards and don’t recommend dishes that take longer to prepare.

If there’s a downturn you cannot drop quality standards—you can’t give a smaller steak.

People don’t want to hear your problems. They like to enjoy the food, the service and leave happy. You don’t

burden them with the economy, how the market is down and that’s why there are less people in. Part of coming to your restaurant is to forget there’s a crisis out there. You have to make people happy, not burden them.

Then you watch spending, watch excesses, keep an eye on wastage, do what you can with power, gas, water.

Cork & Cleaver will remain in the family. I have my two daughters and one son-in-law working with me. Now two of the grandsons do too. I make certain people know these are my daughters, my son-in-law, my grandsons. It gives people a reason for confidence.

PourasStratos


What I’ve learnt

‘Best restaurant’ today is ‘second best’

tomorrow. But a favourite restaurant is always a favourite.

PHo

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RESTAURANT & CATERING 35 RESTAURANT & CATERING 35

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elling merchandise can add substantially to restaurant profits and help ease pressure during economic downturns. Restaurants that do it well, however, are motivated not by profit but by wanting to extend the dining experience.

For Stefano’s Cafe Bakery in Mildura, Victoria, the big sellers have included chef Stefano di Pieri cookbooks, DVDs and a huge range of branded wines, although a number of other

retail items are also popular, in particular local Murray River pink salts and Lyndall Vandenberg jams, chutneys and relishes. Director Maria Elizabeth Carrazza, who bought the cafe from the leading chef in late 2010, says she has resisted requests from potential suppliers to expand the range, focussing instead on what they do well. “The whole foundation of our concept is based on local, fresh produce that we support and that’s seasonal and of the highest quality,” Ms Carrazza says.

She says the cafe has cut back on slow-selling items, such as some seeds for budding gardeners—“They may do well in supermarkets, but we’re specialised”. The branded products do best, in particular the cook-books and DVDs, and the cafe’s overall retail sales comprise about a fifth of their total earnings. “The key is that Stefano’s is a brand... when people come to us they expect a certain level of quality,” says Carrazza.

Merchandise sales are even more significant for branding leaders Hard Rock cafe. Len-

nie Huntly, co-owner of Hard Rock’s Sydney restaurant, now located at Darling Harbour, says retail sales are

responsible for about a third of total revenue. The Sydney

outlet re-opened in the tourist district mid-year

after the lease at the former premises in Darlinghurst came to an end. Despite opening in winter, Mr Huntly says sales have

been strong and he expects this to continue

in the warmer months, when patronage tends to be higher. And in the Gold Coast’s

Surfers Paradise store, which Mr Huntley also owns, sales have grown year-on-year, even during difficult economic times. “It’s as common for people to buy a T-shirt from


Marketing

Top gear

“The whole foundation of our

concept is based on local, fresh produce that we support and

that’s seasonal and of the highest quality.”

Maria Elizabeth Carrazza, Stefano’s Cafe Bakery, Victoria

Creating a line of merchandise seems like smart business, but the experts say make sure you maintain the quality of your brand. By Vivienne Reiner

Retail sales of Stefano di Pieri’s merchandise

account for a fifth of the cafe’s earnings.

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Hard Rock as it is to buy a burger, and that [branding] takes time to produce... there’s a lot of companies out there trying to do what Hard Rock does but it isn’t easy to get it right.”

Even the global casual dining success story, however, has found it pertinent to reinvent itself. About five years ago the brand decided that to go to the next level, it should evolve from being US-focused to franchises having more of a local flavour. “We are very clear that customers wouldn’t be wanting to cel-ebrate that experience [through merchandise memorabilia] if it wasn’t a good one,” Huntly says.

The new Sydney destination has separate retail shops within the restaurant and Huntly has extended the merchandise range to include something for the whole family—including hats, jewellery, children’s clothes and men’s range. The Sydney and Surfers restaurants introduce seasonal short-run subtle fashion items that are not obviously from the Hard Rock Australian

brand—making them more attractive to locals and encouraging repeat customers. “The bigger the selection, the more oppor-tunity people have to buy something,” he observes. However, it is the original grey and black Hard Rock T-shirts, polos and collector pins that remain the biggest sellers.

uality is important, with the franchise only using reputable suppliers that guarantee high stan-dards. And floor staff, dressed in Hard Rock style, are on hand to explain the story behind certain merchandise. For example, a percentage of sales of popular signature T-shirts partly designed by

music legends are donated to charity. These items raise a lot of money for the star’s charity of choice, and the celebrities also promote the product, which is good for business. Additional sales from the signature range are of course welcome but Mr Huntley says Hard Rock would be involved in philanthropy re-gardless: “We can reach so many people and have an opportu-nity to give something back.”

According to Tetsuya Wakuda of Tetsuya’s in Sydney, the impetus to expand his brand was born out of necessity because of the increasing numbers of diners asking for some of his won-derful unique dressings such as the oyster vinaigrette. Brand manager Marco Dal Corso explains that kitchen staff were satisfying customers’ desires by bundling up take-home bags but that the issue was not only time pressures but also the fact that the ad-hoc packaging did not live up to the gourmand’s


Above: Hard Rock cafe has extended its merchandising, because “the bigger the selection, the more opportunity people have to buy something”. Left: Tetsuya’s branded merchandise grew from a solution to a packaging problem.

Marketing

quality desires. The solution has proven win-win, with happy customers helping drive traffic to the restaurant. “People can prepare a special meal at home with Tetsuya’s products for a fraction of what it would have cost to go to Tetsuya’s restaurant,” Dal Corso says. “They have a memorable dinner with friends who then think, if this product is so good, how good must the restaurant be.”

The products were launched in 2003 when he started supplying the product through David Jones food courts on an exclusivity basis for six months, along with an arrangement with the Pyrmont Fish Market—once his local seafood suppliers heard about the takeaway product they also wanted to offer it to customers. After the six months were up, Tetsuya’s was made available to airports in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and a number of distributors nationwide. The products are now also exported to New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK, with cracking the US market the next aim.

The expanding brand includes Black Truffle Salsa, Nori Vinegar and Sliced Soft Smoked Ocean Trout, available in 100g, 200g and

1kg. As well, Tetsuya’s cookbook written in 2000 is still a popular restaurant seller and the renowned French-influenced Japanese

chef has endorsed products reflecting his philosophy such as MAC Damascus knives that have the characteristic of each

implement having its own unique patterning, and he is also an ambassador for the leading European cook-

ing producer Electrolux. Tetsuya’s take-home products attempt to use

the same ingredients as those served in the res-taurant—they have no additional sugars, salts or preservatives but rather use natural alternatives such as swapping fresh ginger or garlic for the

dehydrated variety. As well, leading manufacturer Birch & Waite is used to ensure health, safety and

cleanliness to Japanese standards. Tetsuya’s ‘golden child’ branded dish—his smoked ocean

trout—demonstrates well the success of his products. It is uncommonly smoked cold in a sushi style and the taste is so wonderful, it is best eaten without any accompaniments, Dal Corso says. The fish are bred off Macquarie Harbour on Tas-mania’s west coast in heritage-listed waters, sourced from two rivers that come from wilderness areas. It is no wonder, then, that this Tetsuya’s quality-controlled delicacy is available in Aus-tralian supermarkets as well as in countries such as Italy, France and Switzerland—and the public cannot get enough of it.


“They have a memorable dinner with friends who then think, if this product is so good, how good must the

restaurant be.”Marco Dal Corso, Tetsuya’s

brand manager

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Ice, ice babyWith summer almost upon us, many restaurants will be gearing up for a busy season with increased demand for cold drinks. And the perfect drink needs the perfect ice cube. Nothing will enhance your customers’ drink like the ice produced by Brema’s extremely popular range of ice machines.

Brema’s flagship CB range offers self-contained ice machines for under bench or free-standing installation. These machines produce at-tractive, crystalline cubes weighing 13g which rapidly chill and enhance the appearance of any beverage. Ice production options range between 21kg to 155kg per 24 hours with storage capacity between 4kg and 65kg. The CB range of self-contained ice cube machines is the perfect fit for cafes, restaurants and hotels.

Also available from Brema is the VM series of modular cuber heads which offer high production of 7g ‘fast cubes’. This particular model of ice machine ranges from 140kg production to 770kg per 24 hours offer-ing great flexibility. Coupled with a Brema storage bin to suit, the VM ice cube machine is great for large restaurants, hotels, nightclubs and function centres which require high production and storage of ice cubes to meet peak demand.

In addition to its range of ice cube making solutions, Brema also specialises in ice flaking machines. The GB range of self-contained units and G range of modular heads offer production of granular ice from 90kg up to 1000kg per 24 hours. The granular ice produced by these machines is perfect for restaurant fish displays as well as for use in cocktails.

Brema’s G range of ice flakers can also be coupled with different sized storage bins to suit giving you peace of mind that your business will have enough ice in reserve for your busiest periods. From compact, under-counter ice cube makers that produce attractive cubes for a perfect drink to large-scale ice-flaking units for fish displays, Brema has a model for any application and budget. For more information on how Brema ice machines can benefit your business this summer, please contact Chris Nedelkos on [email protected] or 0422 192 243.

Keep customers coming back with Tork hygiene solutionsNo matter how great your food or service, if your washroom doesn’t cut it, neither does your establishment. According to re-cent research conducted by BIS Shrapnel, 76 per cent of people won’t return to a restaurant where the washroom isn’t clean.

Your washroom says a lot about your kitchenResearch clearly shows that cleanliness and hygiene are critical when it comes to the overall dining experience. In fact, almost 90 per cent of people surveyed believe that the cleanli-ness of a restaurant toilet is an indication of the hygiene standard of the restaurant and its staff, kitchen and food preparation area.

Word of mouthThe damage caused by a bad washroom experience doesn’t stop with the customer. Research confirms that the majority of people would take action if they encountered or were advised of a bad experience with a restaurant’s toilet facilities.

Improve hygiene with Tork Tork® is a leading provider of hygiene solutions that increase productivity and reduce cost-in-use. A comprehensive range of paper towel, toilet tissue, liquid soap, air freshener, Tork Xpressnap® napkin and wiper dispensers give establish-ments an instant makeover and keep customers coming back for more. It’s never been easier to upgrade your washroom than right now – free Tork dispensers and free installation between July and October 2011.

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It is now commonplace that a cafe will invest a considerable amount of money in a point of sale system. In many cases this investment is greater than the cost of the coffee machine that they use in

95% if their sales. But in many cases it is not used in the same manner as the coffee machine.

The coffee machine is serviced and cleaned. But the point of sale system that is used in 100% of the customer sales is more often than not used as a shiny black shoe box to store the day’s cash.

In today’s competitive environment this is no longer good enough. The point of sale system holds critical tools and information to benefit the business.

One common, but an often under used area, is the Loyalty Rewards system. Statistics we have gathered over a decade of working with Cafe’s Point of Sale systems and Loyalty Rewards programs, report that a customer with a loyalty rewards card will visit a business 4 times more often and spend 50% more than a non loyalty member. Now that cafe’s are becoming a must stop for many people getting them on your loyalty card is critical.

Gone are the days of a smiley-face stamp being classed as a loyalty system. Today’s successful cafes have a credit card style loyalty card that supports their brand and is used more often than a customer’s EFTPOS card. Loyalty card systems allow members to earn loyalty rewards on coffee purchases and/or food sales. Members can load money in advance onto their card and then use that to make purchases. Their loyalty card can have their favou-rite drink pre-programmed in. It can contain their birth-day, their nick name and hopefully their email address.

The loyalty database will let the cafe know their best customers, custom-ers who have not been buying off them for a number of weeks, when it is a customer’s first visit (great for a franchise or mul-tiple cafes under the one brand) and even if they come in on their birthday. A free coffee on a member’s birthday means another member for life. The in-vestment in a Point of Sale system is an important decision. The system should grow with the cafe and the point of sale company should be seen as a business partner that is adding value and expertise more than a supplier.

For more information feel free to contact Menumate in Australia on 1300 886947 or New Zealand on 0800 657300 or via email on [email protected].

The centre of your loyalty system.


helps to answer these ques-tions quickly and not after the fact,” Harte says. “Issues such as

when teams were caught out because they were short-

staffed or when the temporary replace-

ment employees weren’t actually the most suitable for the job.

“In manual or semi-automated environments,

timekeeping clerks, supervisors, employ-

ees and payroll clerks all must manually record time.

Inevitably, despite good inten-tions, transcription errors are made. Third-party studies com-paring actual time worked with recorded time show these kinds of errors occur with regularity.

“Unfortunately, in most cases, only underpayments are reported which results in

Areality of running a restaurant or cafe is it’s unbelievably time-consuming and involves a lot of human resource management—in other words, a lot of roster work, availability of staff, award pay calculations and (of course) budgeting.

Thankfully for industry members, the advancement of technology systems has re-sulted in a lot of the manual labour being taken out of basic pay calculations and

complicated staff rostering and management. “For many organisations, labour is a large portion of operating

expense,” Peter Harte, general manager of Kronos APAC, says.“Labour costs can represent from 30 per cent of an organisa-

tion’s budget, so there is obviously a lot of scope for managing this cost effectively. Workforce management systems help by providing restaurants with the intelligence to predict and forecast the optimum number of employees needed at any given time.”

Kronos Australia is a leading provider of workforce management solutions in Australia and New Zealand. WFM systems can fulfil several business needs including time and attendance, payroll, rostering, absence management and activities management.

“Each business is unique in its needs, with unique business and IT requirements,” Harte says. “As such, Kronos recommends taking a custom view in order to capture these require-ments before recommending the most suitable approach.”

Workforce management systems are crucial for understanding issues such as who is approaching overtime, assessing your actual weekly budget against your weekly forecasted budget and who is likely to be available for an immediate shift.

“Workforce management solutions provide businesses with real-time information that

Managing labour costs is vital in a modern restaurant or cafe, and luckily there is software available that can help you do it, writes Louis White


Technology

machinesTime

“We had one customer who

manages 80 staff and was spending

two days a fortnight doing the payroll.”

Spiro Vournazos, RedCat

national sales manager

erroneous overpayment to the tune of 0.5 per cent to 2 per cent of payroll. By capturing punches once at the source and never touching the data again, workforce management solu-tions can eliminate transcription error.”

Worforce management systems also make it easy for restau-rants to take into consideration the availabilities and prefer-ences of all their employees when rostering shifts. This allows employees to plan their work around their lifestyles, increas-ing their level of engagement and ownership with their jobs while decreasing the cost of staff churn.

Another key issue is ensuring that the staff are paid the right amount. Pay award systems can be confusing when you have to calculate pay rules regarding shift differentials, premium pay or holiday pay.

“Employees know how much they should be paid and will report underpayment due to misapplied policy,” Harte says. “However, they are usually not so eager to report overpay-ment. By deploying pay policies in a single, centralised envi-ronment, workforce management solutions help ensure that those policies are consistently applied, eliminating interpreta-tion error. Manual or semi-automated time and attendance environments are also prone to employees succumbing to the temptation to steal a few minutes here and there from their employer, like punching in early or out late to accrue unau-thorised overtime, or having a ‘buddy’ punch in for you when you are running late. Automated time and attendance systems that implement biometric technologies such as fingerprint or vein identification can help to mitigate the above scenarios and help reflect more accurate labour costs.”

RedCat is a specialist provider of fully integrated point-of-sale (POS) solutions that cater to the needs of the many differ-ent businesses within the hospitality industry.

“The systems are a lot more efficient these days to calculate every aspect of workforce management,” Spiro Vournazos, RedCat national sales manager, says.

“Our point-of-sale system captures information from cus-tomers through to tracking revenues. You will be able to find out what staff are serving, what customers are buying and it will help with every aspect of your business. It is an end-to- end solution for restaurants and cafes.”

One of the features includes tracking and displaying orders on a production monitor that displays the last eight orders simultaneously and can recall the past 64 orders; colourises the order as [white, yellow or red] depending on the length of time it has been in the system and records the time taken to finalise each order for later analysis.

“The primary advantage is to say owners and managers time on paperwork so they can concentrate on actually running the business,” Vournazos says. “We had one customer who manages 80 staff and was spending two days a fortnight doing the payroll. After implementing our software, it has been cut down to half an hour and they concentrate on the core functions of the business.

“The business is now more time-efficient and they also have more information on how they are operating.”

If you want your business to be more efficient, it may just be time to invest in a workforce management system.


Waterproof canopy PVC or acrylic canvas Huge range of fabric colours Ready for your branding Light-weight post, slots into ground sleeve Frame powder coated in Black or Silver (or custom colour at additional cost) Canopy simply clips onto post—it’s that easy Side post to maximise your table area Can’t spin out of place or over the road No impact on the footpath traffic or your tables Easy for 1, small person to use. Designed for a 50kg waitress to be able to do it herself in 1 minute. 2.5m x 1.8m to fit shop front width Easy Install

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The Street Smart Umbrella is waterproof, ready to be branded and available in aluminium or painted finish with a PVC or canvas canopy.

It is designed for a 50kg waitress to be able to put up and take down by herself in 1 minute

For more informationPh: 03/ 9676 2476Fax: 03/ 9676 2578 or visitwww.yarrashade.com.au

The ongoing global economic downturn has undoubtedly slowed the rate at which restaurants and catering companies turn over their tableware—among other things. “Most of us are really just trying to hang on to what we’ve already got at the moment,” said one industry insider, who asked not to be named.

“Now’s not the time to be seeking out brave new designs,” they said, before admitting that many outfits are still buying up on durable polycarbonate and toughened materials as a result of new workplace safety laws introduced last year.

But while the room for lavish tableware spending might be limited, that doesn’t mean some carefully guided trends aren’t making their way onto restaurant and hotel tables around the nation. And, increasingly, these trends are shaped by the philos-ophies and expectations of diners watching their hip pockets, rather than being driven by industry or manufacturers.

Bill Sinclair heads up the sales team at tableware supplier Spyral, and says managers are finding new ways to bal-ance cost and waste management with a pared-back modern aesthetic.

The result is more refined, more user-friendly, and increasingly focused on efficiency and quality control, with the help of clever technologies.

“In restaurants, we are seeing a move away from traditional fine dining to ‘signature’ res-taurants,” Sinclair explains. “By that, I mean the quality of the food is still the same, the quality of the chinaware and glassware is the same, but the overall look is not as traditional.”

The move might seem counterintuitive for many restaurateurs, who have long tried to create intimacy and a certain peacefulness in a dining room. But as diners exit expensive eateries en masse, perhaps in a bid to cut their own costs in the face of financial woes, owners seem to have returned to the acoustic ‘buzz’ of a busy restaurant in an ironic but understandable backflip.

Sinclair concurs: “If you go past a row of restaurants these

days, you’re more likely to go into the one that appears to have lots of noise and activity—not the quite one.”

The trend is carried through to tabletops, he says, with a general move away from large,

deep bowls and oversized plates to smaller, more delicate plating options.

“I think this has come about due to our change in eating habits, in that we no longer always go out for a one large main course, but instead choose to experience a series of smaller dishes,” Sinclair offers. “It’s also partly due to the

fact that many restaurants no longer have one type of cuisine on their

menu, but are offering more fusion-inspired menus. It’s not uncommon to see

a Japanese-inspired dish next to a traditional item like lamb shanks, or a delicate tapas-style dish.”

More eclectic or multicultural menu combinations give way to more creative plating options, with much tableware shrinking down to a more modest size and adopting asymmetrical shapes to compensate for the downsize.

Table talk

“We are seeing a move away from traditional fine

dining to ‘signature’ restaurants. The food, chinaware

and glassware is the same, but the look is

not as traditional.Bill Sinclair, Spyral

While daring new designs might not go with economic instability, tableware trends that downsize portions and maximise aesthetics are sure to keep diners hungry for more. Lucy Robertson reports

Bauscher’s Emotion range adopts a new trend in tableware of downsized plates, individual portions, and delicate stylings.

Special report


TORNADO

CLIMATE

AU

STR ALIA

A4 Tornad0 2 page AD_outlines.indd 1 2/11/11 1:47 PM

“We’re seeing a lot of mixed media at the moment, such as glass being used alongside metal and porcelain, all on the table at the same time. I think it adds interest and depth to the food they are presenting, and in my view, reflects a more holistic view about the entire dining experience today.”

Sinclair notes it is not just high-end restaurants that are adopting the new tableware approach.

“A similar trend has creeped into the world of buffet dining in hotels and catering outfits, where diners would tradition-ally serve themselves from a communal large bowl or platter of separate food items, literally ‘digging out’ what they wanted. The problem with this was that after a couple of diners, the platter looked like a mess,” he explains.

Happily, the use of smaller plates and more individual plating options addresses all three problems in one, promising a win for diners as well as managers.

“Serving portions on individual dishes means the chef regains aesthetic control, management no longer has HACCP issues, and managers regain control over portion sizes and wastage,” he says. These kinds of new tableware trends fit well with cur-rent economic pressures, too, by ensuring that the most profit-able modes of food service are still viable in the face of increas-ing safety, efficiency and waste controls.

Toughened materials like those used in Crown Commercial’s Lucaris or Polycarbonate ranges are also making headway in today’s pared-back tableware aesthetic—primarily for their tailoring to recent OH&S legislation designed to protect cut fingers from broken glasses or plates.

Similarly, cocktail functions or roaming entrees are now increasingly served as individual portions on curved spoons, in shot glasses, or artisan improvised plates like slates, wooden or bamboo mats. Clever technologies like convection heating or magnets hidden within large serving vessels are also posing new heating and cooling options in the cocktail environment.

Because, no matter how dire the world’s financial situation is, people will always need to eat. And if they can do so from a delicate Asian-inspired spoon, a piece of industrial-look slate or brushed steel, or on a suitably downsized, stylishly asymmetri-cal plate, it’s sure to feel like a truly priceless moment.

Crown Commercial’s Lucaris range maximises toughness to reflect last year’s new safety laws.

Special report

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Summer’s balmy evenings and beachy weekends are beckoning. Um-brellas are being raised, shade sails positioned, heaters stowed, and icy bottles of water are at the ready, heralding the beginning of the peak alfresco dining season.

For restaurant and cafe owners, it’s tempting to put as many tables as possible out on the footpath to capitalise on the beautiful weather. But, of course, it’s not as straightforward as that. For a start

there’s the mandatory council approval you require, which can take several months to obtain and comes at a cost and with all manner of conditions (they vary greatly across Australia, with some local government authorities not very keen on the idea of pavement dining at all). Then there’s the investment you need to make to get your pavement tables, chairs, barriers and shading in place, looking good and properly staffed.

The set-up costs may be high, but on a busy dining strip, footpath tables will pay for themselves quite quickly, says Billy Aitkens, co-manager of Sydney’s Bondi Trattoria, which has pave-ment tables on its beachside street. “Having tables on the footpath is a really valuable asset for us,” he says. “Bondi is that kind of place. It’s a see and be-seen kind of location. People love the ambience of sitting outside and watching the passing parade.”

Outdoor dining—and, in particular, on-street dining—has become something Austra-lians have not only grown to love, it’s something we now simply expect to find in both

popular dining strips and quiet suburban streets.

“When you think about the climate and the outdoorsy culture here, it’s no surprise that pavement dining has

become so huge,” says Aitkens. “There’s something about

sitting outside in the fresh air, taking in the

view and the goings-on around you, that makes a meal more memorable.”

There’s no doubt that diners see plenty

of benefits in scoring a footpath table (when

the weather’s just right, that is) but there are also many posi-tives for the eatery itself.

“Whether they’re on foot or driving along, people see your street tables first, and what they see creates an instant impression of your business,”


Special report

smartsStreet

“When you think about the climate and the outdoorsy culture here, it’s no surprise that

pavement dining has become so huge.”

Billy Aitkins, Bondi Trattoria

Sometimes the best seat in the house isn’t inside at all. Sarah Pickette examines the ins and outs of footpath dining

Alfresco dining suits our lifestyle, but does it

suit your cashflow?

says Tony Giannakis, co-owner of The Graham in Port Melbourne. “The minute we put up the umbrellas we’re saying to people that we’re open for business. We have tables on an exposed corner and because of a lack of weather and wind protection our footpath tables are really only used to capacity a couple of weeks a year. They are, however, a really im-portant part of what we as a restaurant offer. That’s why we’re thinking about upgrading our outdoor furniture.”

Giannakis is wise to be considering investing in his footpath tables, says John Close, principal consultant at the food and beverage consulting group Close Encounters. “If you’re in a good location for it, having footpath dining is fundamental,” he says. “Not only does it allow a cafe or restaurant to accom-modate a greater number of diners, it announces your presence and gives people a chance to suss out what kind of establishment this is.”

Footpath tables can also be a great

way for a business to diversify. That’s how Wayne Pottenger, owner of Amaki Cottage Cafe in Kiama, NSW, regards his outdoor tables.

“We have about 50 seats outside and 30 inside, so people know us for our outdoor tables. Our cafe is in a 170-year-old heritage cottage; it’s not exactly modern inside. Having street tables has allowed us to effectively create two different dining zones.”

Not everyone is a fan of footpath dining, though. Sometimes local residents and neighbouring businesses resent the mere presence of tables on their streets and argue that they’re noisy and grubby. But it can also be argued that pavement dining makes our streets more sociable, safer and more attractive.

“Australian cities are trying to com-pete on a world stage and to offer in-ternational visitors a pleasurable dining experience. I think street dining has a big role to play in that,” says Close.


Special report

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Cool runnings If scorching summer tempera-tures are stopping you utilising your footpath, consider investing in a misting system. According to David Diamond, CEO of Climate Australia, which sells commercial misting systems, one ‘plug and play’ misting system can bring the temperature down by almost 20 degrees. “They are ideal for street dining,” he says. “You can blow out a nice, chilled breeze and because the spray is so fine it evaporates almost instanta-neously; customers can sit in front of it and read with their glasses on.” Another advantage in a street situa-tion is that you can add a few drops of citronella oil to the water reser-voir and the flies will stay away. A misting system that can cover up to 50m2 costs $1495 (including GST).

questioning their quality – but newer names like Ayala ($58.05, www.finewinepartners.com.au), Ruinart ($69.87, Moet-

Hennessy Australia www.almliquor.com.au), and

Larmandier-Bernier ($56.86, www.

bibendum.com.au) are all very high class. (Prices are LUC for NV wines.) More importantly, these

are the cham-pagnes clever wine

types are drinking. Finer Australian sparkling

wines have now truly found their feet. 2000 Radenti from

Champagne and sparkling wine is surrounded by more mystique than any other wine style. It’s the bubbles, of course; and the often high price; the sense of celebration, and the sense of seriousness’s abandonment. Out on your own establishment’s floor—where customers are unquestioningly enjoying your unique dining experience – adding to that sense of mystique can only but help increase sales and trade people up to better bottles.

And it is this time of year that is the best time to strike, as it were. Spring racing and the gathering speed of yet another fast approaching Christmas seem to activate dormant DNA in many customers. And that DNA seems to long for bubbles.

This is why it is not too much to suggest that a dedicated sparkling wine list might not be a bad idea to publish at this time, particularly given the following three observations about fizzy wine today. More and more grower or small house champagnes are now available in this country. The wines of the bigger luxury multinationals are no longer the only option for a cashed-up boulevardier. Brands such as Pol Roger and Bollinger will continue to own large market share—and there’s no

Adding to sparkling wine’s sense of mystique can only but help increase sales and trade people up to better bottles, writes Ben Canaider


Drinks

sparkleAdd some

The bubbles – or mousse – then

exploding in your mouth also serve

to stimulate saliva glands, making you

feel hungry.

Tasmania’s Freycinet is superb ($41.55, www.freycinetvineyard.com.au); Hanging Rock’s Macedon Brut Rose NV ($20, www.hangingrock.com.au) is a very smart, pinot-powered food wine; and Arras ($36.55, www.accolade-wines.com) perhaps lead the charge with regard to Australian fizz nipping Cham-pagne’s characterful heels. Italian prosecco and Spanish cava are appealing to more and more customers on two basic levels: fresh, clean flavours, and affordable prices. Prosecco brands from the Veneto such as Bellussi (www.arquilla.com) and Carpene Malvolti (www.alepat.com.au) both land well under $20. Cava Segura Viudas Brut 2006 is another bargain ($14.62, [email protected]). Of course. Locally made prosecco is another option: try Dal Zotto Pucino Prosecco from the King Valley in Victoria. Clean, lean and pristine stuff ($14, www.dalzotto.com.au).

The other wonderful thing about sparkling wine is its com-pelling alchemy. Notes in your dedicated sparkling wine list along the following lines might be just enough to engage a few more customers for a little longer…

BubblesAccording to the latest champagne research—from the Univer-sity of Reims, no less—it’s now official. There are 20 million bubbles in every bottle of champagne, liberating themselves from the wine at a rate of 400 bubbles per second. And each and every one of them affects the smell and taste of the wine. Hydrodynamics is what it is called: the way the bubbles of CO

2 form and twist upwards in a vortex to the surface of the wine helps release the myriad components; the bubbles—or mousse—then exploding in your mouth also serve to stimu-late saliva glands, making you feel hungry.

Dom PerignonAnd, no, Dom Perignon did not invent any of this bubble magic. In 1668 he went to a Champagne abbey, basically as its accountant. One of his jobs was to get the blends of the base wines right. He did this well but he failed in his other endeavour: to stop the bubbles forming in the sealed bottles. The bottles were exploding in the following spring, as some of the wine underwent secondary fermentation in said bottle. Customers found exploding bottles less than ideal. But the English loved the sparkling wine that the secondary fermenta-tion process developed. And it was actually an English doctor, Christopher Merret, who, in 1662, first recorded the process of adding extra wine and sugar to the base wines, putting the mixture into bottle, and then fermenting again to create the CO

2 bubbles. English bottles didn’t explode, though, as English glass was formed in coal-burning furnaces. Via the coal iron got into the glass and thereby strengthened it.

PressureAnd the champagne bottle needs to be strong. Those 20 mil-lion bubbles amount to four litres of CO

2, creating an inter-nal pressure of 6 bar, or about 90 psi. That’s three times the pressure of a car tyre. It’s also why the champagne cork needs a wire cage (or muselet, which Dom Perignon did invent). And it is another reason to do some more staff training. A champagne stopper—exiting the neck of the bottle at about 50kph—can take more than an overhead 12V light out.


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“The space at the Moreton Rubber building—right across the road from the Gabba—had been used as an antiques and restoration store, and was in pretty bad shape when we [Cam with co-owners Dan Clark and Em-manuel Sakellarakis] first took possession in early 2008. There was a massive amount of work just getting the interior prepped and safe before we could even start the fit-out.

“Some of the original features suited our vision perfectly, which was to open a traditional Roman-style enoteca. The brick walls had a wonderful textured feel that added a real gravitas to the room. We also kept some of the original lead lighting as it seemed to fit the space so perfectly.

“Everything else in the restaurant is new. The floorboards were in pretty bad shape, so we replaced some sections. I used the plans that the architects [of Ryder Hampton design company] had drawn up as a starting point. The fit-out was deliberately restrained so as to keep it simple and allow the bones of the building to shine. It took about five months until we opened our doors in September 2008.

“The high ceilings give a real sense of space while the walls are adorned with mirrors and vintage posters. Down one side of the room is a series of booths consisting of dark timber tables and seats. The backrests of the benches are clad in a red textured fabric that adds a vibrant splash of colour.

“The other side of the room has a dark brown marble bar running along its length. A traditional enoteca would usually consist of just a bar with a limited amount of seating. It’s a place to have a glass of vino, a bite to eat and the option to purchase wine to take away. We have taken that concept and modernised it by incorporating a full restaurant as well as a boutique wine store. The store is really popular. Our customers appreciate the opportu-nity to purchase wines they have discovered in the restaurant. It’s also possible to dine in the wine store. There’s two walls of shelving, so the tables are in the middle of the room.

Co-owner Cam O’Brien and his team have converted a run-down store in a heritage-listed Brisbane building into a little piece of Rome

1889 Enoteca


details

1889 EnotecaMorton Rubber Building10-12 Logan RdWoolloongabba QLDT: (07) 3392 4315W: www.1889enoteca.com.au

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“At the restaurant, there’s also a small but popular outdoor dining area. We have a cellar downstairs that doubles as a function room. It can seat up to 32 guests around a long table. It’s a dark and atmospheric room— almost like being in the catacombs with its bare stone walls.

“The entire fit-out was from scratch. We designed it so it works functionally for all staff. We’ve kept the restaurant uncluttered and simple so it’s easy for waitstaff to move through the space, and there has been a bit of tweaking over the past three years to make it work perfectly. We didn’t want anything too fussy filling the room. Under one roof we have incorporated a restaurant, wine bar, store and cellar. Our interior is warm with Italian sophistication.”

Manrique RodriguezGeneral Manager InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto

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R&C November 2011

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