Friday Feed: New hot spots in Sydney’s west satisfy growing hunger for fine dining
FRIDAY FEED: New hot spots satisfy our growing hunger for fine dining out west, writes Renata Gortan.
Sydney Taste
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THE inner city has long been the breeding ground for new restaurants, but Western Sydney is no longer a dining wilderness.
People may be travelling further from the CBD in search of more affordable mortgages, but when dining out they still expect the same vibe, the food and service they’d get in Surry Hills.
When Michelin-trained chef Joshua DeLuca, 24, got sick of driving an hour to eat the food he craved, he decided to open a hipster burger bar in Penrith. Together with Richard Borg, 23, and Timothy Rosenstrauss, 22, Burger Head opened in January and “it’s been crazy every day”.
“We thought, if we’re travelling to the city to eat, we’re not the only ones,” he says.
“In our opinion, Western Sydney was always lacking quality places to eat that were affordable.
“Growing up in the area, we had an intrinsic connection with what people want out here. I think there’s a yearning for what’s available in Surry Hills, the food and the vibe from the city but you also have to be realistic with price points.”
DeLuca lives in Prospect and looked at Parramatta and Blacktown before deciding on Penrith, which already had a small hipster hub.
“Henri Marc is my morning coffee haunt; on a Saturday you have to wait 40 minutes for a table, which feels very Surry Hills. There’s also High Street Depot and Kingston and Co, we all have similar ideologies in a way, so that was one of the reasons we chose Penrith,” he says.
Between the three of them, DeLuca, Borg and Rosenstrauss have worked at Momofuku Seiobo, Quay and Master. They’re not the only fine-dining chefs flipping burgers, but they are the first to bring them to the west.
“We like to think that although we’re cooking burgers we can still apply all these learnings and techniques, from the perfection of how things are cut to the quality and the process behind what we are doing here,” DeLuca says.
“People are coming from Blacktown and Parramatta and we’ve had some from Hornsby and Maroubra, that’s humbling seeing people travel all this way for our food and we’d like to bring a few more venues out here.”
On Monday, Rockpool Dining Group opened two restaurants in Penrith — Fratelli Famous and The Bavarian.
Group CEO Thomas Pash says the west is a key part of the group’s strategy, with plans to open another 10 restaurants around Parramatta, Macarthur and Liverpool in the next 12 months.
“Every year we do customer surveys and several showed key customers coming from the west so we wanted to branch out into that market,” Pash says.
He believes price point is key, with ancillary brands such as Fratelli Famous opening instead of Fratelli Fresh.
“We’re focusing on brands that they know and travel to and really enjoy. We believe that fast casual dining, for the quality, offer and experience, the price point is of value,” he says.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that from 2014 to 2015, Camden grew by 7.6 per cent, Auburn is up 3.1 per cent, followed by Liverpool and Parramatta at 2.4 per cent, Blacktown at 2.1 per cent and Penrith by 2 per cent.
Statistics from restaurant discovery platform Zomato show that during the past four months searches for eateries in the west have increased by 37.75 per cent, while collectively, the CBD, Surry Hills, Chatswood and Darlinghurst have seen a decline of 39 per cent.
From December to January, Penrith experienced a search growth of 43.78 per cent. The demand means local restaurants are stepping up their game.
BEST OF THE REST
WOLFE & CO, DURAL
Head chef David Koorey comes from a fine-dining background in Sydney and the UK, while owner Che Vogler was head sommelier at fine-diner Nel.
THE EMPORIUM, PARRAMATTA
After operating The Coffee Emporium, a national coffee franchise, Parramatta local John Ayoub opened a premium restaurant in his neighbourhood.
EASY LANE, WINDSOR
Executive chef Clint Jaeger worked at Tetsuya’s, Hugo’s and Banc before heading west to Windsor.
BELLA VISTA HOTEL, BELLA VISTA
After an apprenticeship at The Australian Brewery in Rouse Hill, Cemal Erdonmez worked at fine diners Est. and Quay before returning to his roots in the west as head chef.
THE VILLAGE, NARELLAN
Recreating the vibe of its namesake in inner-city Zetland, this brings hipster chic to the suburbs.
‘Beyond a fire sale’: Criniti’s stores sold for staggering price
Despite its whopping $19 million debt, the remaining Criniti’s stores, including Parramatta and Darling Harbour, have sold for a staggeringly low price in what one broker has described as ‘beyond a fire sale’.
‘I like big buns’: Wacky burgers with a difference
Parramatta’s very own Eat Street is as exciting and diverse as the city itself. Take BL Burgers for example, which brought its premium burgers — including the Blame Canada, Blame Indian and Mac Daddy burgers — to western Sydney.