Spotlight on pipis at Kuti Shack
Pipis – better known to South Australians as cockles – are the new oysters. That’s according to Vanessa Button, the face of new Goolwa cafe and diner Kuti Shack.
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Pipis – better known to South Australians as cockles – are the new oysters. That’s according to Vanessa Button, the face of new Goolwa café and diner Kuti Shack.
Kuti is the local Ngarrindjeri word for a pipi or cockle, and Goolwa PipiCo has partnered with Vanessa and local chefs Billy Dohnt (d’Arry’s Verandah, Penfolds Wines, Salopian Inn) and Brendan Roach (Press Food and Wine, Osteria Oggi) to give pipis the kind of restaurant they deserve.
Vanessa is excited to be the first diner to offer pipis served sashimi style.
“No one else does sashimi pipis, and we think they’re better eating than an oyster,” Vanessa says. “But they are similar in the fact that they’re juicy, succulent and a real taste of the sea. We’ll be serving them with samphire, which has been foraged by the local Ngarrindjeri, and a bloody mary sorbet – so they’re a light, modern take on a Kilpatrick.
But it’s not just pipis on the menu, a Kuti Shack food truck just outside will offer fish ’n’ chips and pulled-pork burgers; while the 70-seat indoor space (“every seat has an ocean view”) will also offer dishes for vegetarians and carnivores, including a kangaroo burger, as well as a twist on salt and pepper squid.
“We will be dehydrating saltbush leaves and mixing them through – so it’s more of a saltbush and pepper squid. The samphire actually grows on the dunes. Olaf Hansen (ex Aquacaf and Bombora Goolwa Beach) is a real Fleurieu identity and he has samphire on his property.”
When café Bombora moved out of the space a few months ago to take up a new site on the banks of the Lower Murray it left the Goolwa Beach cafe vacant just weeks out from the busy summer holiday period.
“I fought very hard to get this place, and then with the help of Goolwa PipiCo we were able to secure it,” says Vanessa,
“It was only empty for three months, but the community outcry to reopen it was huge. The council received multiple emails a day and things written in the local paper. It’s a meeting place and it’s needed on the beach. The community is ecstatic – they’re passing by and saying ‘Oh thank God’ and they don’t even know what we’re putting in here yet.”
Locals will be even more ecstatic when they see the makeover the old kiosk has had.
“We’ve given it quite a dramatic facelift in the time allotted,” Vanessa says. “It looks like a million bucks.”
A new kitchen and new furniture are joined by a very special work of art.
“We were really lucky to buy the rights to have a reproduction of local Ngarrindjeri artist Cedric Varcoe’s painting of the Coorong on the back wall.”
The painting hints at Kuti Shack’s commitment to the Ngarrindjeri people of the area.
“We want to open our arms to any traditional land owners who would like to come here to work, because we’re on their land,” says Vanessa.
The Ngarrindjeri community currently own approximately 10 per cent of the South Australian Pipi fishery and also have a commercial partnership with Goolwa PipiCo, which processes and markets their catch.
“We want to be as respectful as we can to traditional owners and also to our environment – so we’re trying really hard to be as close to zero waste as possible – by composting and with our packaging.
“We’re passionate about doing the right thing.”
Opens Dec 20, Mon-Fri 7.30am-5pm, dinner Fri and Sat, closed Dec 24-25,
Main Beach Carpark, Beach Rd, Goolwa, 0418 965 163, facebook.com/kutishack