When The Boathouse Rose Bay was suddenly renamed Rose Bay House this week, the clientele of this waterfront restaurant in the eastern suburbs would’ve been forgiven for a degree of trepidation.

The site was associated with Sydney restaurant royalty in the ’90s and 2000s when it was home to Greg Doyle’s Pier, which closed in 2012. After that, it had a short stint as The Sailors Club. New owners opened Regatta there in 2014, and by the time it closed in 2020, they’d poured nearly $8 million into the flailing venture.

When The Boathouse Group dropped anchor and took over the site in 2021, it appeared to be back on track, successfully transplanting the Boathouse brand that has been rolled out from Patonga to Shelly Beach.

There was just one small problem.

“Customers were confused,” Boathouse Group chief executive Antony Jones says of the upstairs-downstairs arrangement of kiosk and restaurant under the one banner.

“Some thought it was fish and chips upstairs; the difference between the two wasn’t definitive enough.”

The solution is Rose Bay House. The kiosk downstairs remains, but the restaurant space now skips the typical Boathouse formula. You won’t find buckets of prawns here – instead, the culinary direction is inspired by group head chef Natali Mikailoglu’s Turkish upbringing, mixed with some broader influences.

“Growing up in Istanbul, I was immersed in a world of flavours and ingredients from a young age,” she says. “I’m excited to share the vibrant culinary traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean with dishes that draw inspiration from Turkish, Greek and Lebanese cuisines.”

The menu now features swordfish cooked over coals, zaatar-crusted lamb with charred eggplant puree, and baklava – but there’s still space for saffron prawns, a quick pasta dish of eggplant, zucchini and feta, and bombe Alaska. Jones wants it to remain accessible.

The menu has already changed, and the interior makeover will “evolve” over the coming weeks, with new furniture and furnishings, says Jones.

The shift to Rose Bay House – which is in line with the group’s Barrenjoey House venue – signals an emerging premium “House” brand in the Boathouse Group’s portfolio.

“We’re opening in Wollongong in March – that’ll be a Boathouse, we’ve promised them one, but the new venue at Mona Vale [which opens late April] won’t, we’re toying with a few names,” says Jones.