Apera brings Australian fare to Castlecrag

The newly revamped Quadrangle Shopping Village has welcomed another new restaurant to the fold, this time it’s an Australian-themed rotisserie and bar. And, boy, is the tucker good.

Apera’s interiors were designed by Steel and Stitch.

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The newly revamped Quadrangle Shopping Village has welcomed yet another new restaurant to the fold, this time it’s an Australian-themed rotisserie and bar. And, boy, is the tucker good.

The new restaurant is warm and homely.

Called Apera, the old florist and butcher site was extensively renovated to recreate the warm and homely look of an Australian country kitchen.

The interiors were designed by Joshua Clapp from Steel and Stitch, who is also one of Apera’s five owners.

While it’s not obvious at first glance, the stylish new fit out was created almost exclusively from recycled and reclaimed materials.

“Most of the people who walk in comment on how comfortable and warm it is and how it feels like someone’s living room,” says Jenny Shaw, another of the venue’s co-owners. “It’s all very much a part of the Apera philosophy that nothing goes to waste.”

Co-owners Jenny Shaw and Dane Gorrel. Photo: Joel Carrett.

The main decoration comes from the beautiful bunches of banksia, bottlebrush and acacia, as well as the original gum blossom chair fabric, which was created by local illustrator Negin Maddock.

“We wanted to give a bit of a nod to Walter Burley Griggin and Marion Mahony Griffin, who helped build this area and had a deep respect for our native flora and fauna and shared natural landscape,” says Shaw.

The menu includes Dutch carrots with sunflower tahini and heirloom tomatoes with hand-tied burrata.

Whole cauliflower with Birch’s Bay manchego, sage and Riverina hazelnuts.

Open for lunch and dinner, the Apera food menu champions native Australian produce, with all ingredients locally, ethically and sustainably sourced.

Apera also has its own dedicated bar.

“The menu has loads of amazing ingredients on it including Riverina hazelnuts, Tasmanian pepperberries, warrigal greens, samphire and some incredible dairy,” says Shaw.

“We do so many things well in Australia and that’s why we really wanted to showcase Australian produce.”

The menu centres around three hearty meat dishes, the Bannockburn free-range chook and Bungalow Farm porchetta, both of which are cooked on the rotisserie and a Cowra pasture-fed lamb shoulder, which is slow cooked in the wood fire oven.

The red gum fired pear with lavender and iron bark honey.

“We’re trying to cook everything as naturally and simply as we can and just let the ingredients speak for themselves without over-complicating it,” Shaw says.
The menu is also loaded with veg, with options such as the potatoes cooked in chicken fat, the whole cauliflower head, which is charred in the wood fire oven and baked with sage, hazelnuts and local manchego cheese, and the Dutch carrots drizzled in sunflower tahini.

Desserts continue in true blue-style, with a red gum wood fired pear with lashings of iron bark honey and a chocolate mousse with wattleseed crumble.

Details:
What: Apera
Where: 100 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag
When: Wed - Sat 11am - 12am, Sun 11am - 10pm
Web: apera.com.au