Newcastle & Hunter: Rise of fine dining ‘captivates a crowd’

The largest group of visitors to Newcastle and the Hunter are adult couples looking for food, wine and enjoyment.

Subo owners Beau Vincent and Suzie Pollak-Vincent in their restaurant. Picture: Ryan Osland

The largest group of people who visit Newcastle and the Hunter Valley, according to the official numbers, are adult couples who are looking for food, wine and enjoyment. Increasingly, they’re finding it all.

The NSW city, one of the world’s largest coal ports, has made a concerted effort to rebrand itself as a culinary capital. More than 9.5 million visits to the area were recorded in the past financial year, up by more than 1.2 million in the past three years.

Many of Newcastle’s rustic pubs remain as reminders of its working-class history. But up-market kitchens such as Restaurant Mason on Newcastle’s main Hunter Street have also become landmarks for visitors.

Two restaurateurs, Beau Vincent and Suzie Pollak-Vincent, opened Subo on Hunter Street five years ago. Within months, it had won a chef’s hat.

Now it’s one of only three regional NSW towns to hold two. Despite their relatively short tenure, the two have witnessed up close the shift in Newcastle’s leisure life in recent years.

“Things have changed enormously in the town,” Pollak-Vincent says. “There was always that percentage of people here who were well travelled, well-eaten, and had that experience, but people have been learning from them. It’s growing and growing.”

Less than an hour away, in the Hunter village of Pokolbin, Troy and Megan Rhoades-Brown own and run another of the state’s regional two-hat restaurants, Muse.

“People used to come for the wine region, great wines and vines,” Troy Rhoades-Brown says. “Now it’s such a well-established effort with everyone. Wine, food, accommodation.”

He sources his ingredients from local farms, so visitors can eat their way through the Hunter Valley.

“Most of the time, those who come are food and wine-educated people. We’re captivating a crowd of people who understand what we do,” Rhoades-Brown says. “It’s a good vibe.”

Almost a third of all visitors to the Hunter Region travel as an adult couple, and almost two thirds visit to “eat out, dine at a restaurant or cafe”, according to the state’s peak tourism body, Destination NSW.

Hunter Valley Wine Tourism Association vice-president Andrew Margan, who owns Margan Wines and runs restaurants in the Hunter Valley and in Newcastle, says the quality, not necessarily quantity, of new food offerings in the area is what has changed.

“I’ve been in the Hunter for 30-40 years, it’s been growing in that time,” Margan says.

“The demographic across wine and food — they’re started to influence each other. White-collar workers are moving into the area, new restaurants and new bars. It’s a booming place, and that’s what happens.”

The number of tourists to the area has been growing by more than 5 per cent annually during the past few years.