Burwood Brickworks: Acre Farm and Eatery to host three eateries
Imagine a restaurant set amongst veggie patches and a cafe in a greenhouse. A new eatery at the Burwood Brickworks complex is bringing these ideas to life, in the hope diners will see the “blood and sweat” that goes into food production.
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In a matter of weeks people will be able to dine on a rooftop in Melbourne’s east, amongst the farm where their food was grown.
Seeds have been planted atop Melbourne’s newest shopping complex, Burwood Brickworks — which is aiming to be the most sustainable shopping centre in the world.
Reading Cinemas plan to open their first Victorian Titan Luxe theatre at the site, and Ben and Jerry’s is among a host of planned eateries.
The site will also be home to 700 houses, a mix of freestanding and semi-detached terrace housing and apartments.
The shopping centre, including the rooftop farm and its eateries, will open in December.
The thousands of plants being housed on the 2000sq m rooftop for Acre Farm and Eatery’s urban farm will service its in-house restaurant and bar, cafe and grab-and-go deli.
The 180-patron restaurant and bar will be situated between its kitchen’s vegie patches, overlooking Burwood, while a 120-patron cafe will be located inside the rooftop’s huge greenhouse, alongside the thousands of growing herbs, greens, flowers and strawberries.
Alfresco tables will also be set up among the plots of tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums, chillies, pumpkins, watermelons and blackberries, while the grab-and-go deli will be found in the shopping centre below.
Acre Farm and Eatery farm manager Adrian Baiada, who has designed the integrated space, said the aim was to bridge diners’ knowledge gap of where the food on their plate came from.
“The whole ethos of what we’re trying to do here is to create a different type of experience around food and around farm to plate,” he said.
Mr Baiada said customers would see the healthy, real, chemical-free practices that went into producing meals, which would also help foster appreciation for large-scale farmers.
“When people come out and they experience a little of what it takes to grow food and they can see things dying, and the blood and sweat that goes into it, then people start to think about what the big acre farmers in the drought have to do,” he said.
The rooftop farm is set to be a high-production operation, with about 11,000 plants growing at any one time.
Several staff members will be employed to cultivate the farm.
It’s expected to grow enough greens and herbs to service the three eateries, but some of the larger fruiting plants will need to be outsourced from suppliers with acres of space.
Acre Farm and Eatery head chef Brad Simpson said all produce not grown on site would be gathered from local suppliers.
“I need to know where it’s grown and I need to know the people who are growing it,” he said.
“It will be a very intensive process to make sure that we’re keeping local, we’re keeping sustainable and we know the practices that are involved in what we serve.”
The rooftop farm is also set to house its own chickens and wormfarms — where all the kitchens’ waste will go.
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A kitchen garden is being built alongside a daycare centre on the centre’s top floor where Ace Food and Eatery will be able to hold workshops with the children.
Mr Baiada said his team was also planning to collaborate with breweries and would then grow the certain produce specifically required for the different beers.