Chefs spice up city life

A GROUP of talented young chefs is injecting energy into Hobart’s dining scene.

Co-Owners of eatery "The Standard" Sam Chang, Christian Ryan and Will Priestley are extending the space of the restaurant to include a late night diner space.

A GROUP of talented young chefs is injecting energy into Hobart’s dining scene with a string of pop-up restaurants and new establishments coming on line.

Garagistes has closed, but the kitchen team — including co-owner Luke Burgess and chef Glenn Byrnes — have put together an Asian-inspired menu that will be available until April 25, when the new owners take over.

The temporary restaurant has the tongue-in-cheek name Self Preservation ­Society and Mr Byrnes said the style was very casual and communal, much as Garagistes was in the early days.

Mr Byrnes spent several years, including two years as head chef, at Melbourne’s ­acclaimed Taxi Dining Room, where he became good mates with Hobart’s Christian Ryan, of popular lunchtime restaurant Property of: Pilgrim.

The Pilgrim team has taken over a tattoo parlour next door on Liverpool St to expand the offshoot burger business The Standard, which now does only take­aways from the adjacent ­alleyway.

Mr Ryan said The Standard Bar will seat up to 40 people and serve good, cheap food including burgers and fried chicken, along with beer and wine.

“It will be grungy food with good wine, biodynamic and non-biodynamic, local and imported … we want to get everybody in,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Ryan and Mr Byrnes’ former boss at Taxi, Japanese-born chef Ikuei Arakane (known as Kin San) of Iron Chef fame, has designed the menu for the Glass House cocktail bar and restaurant, which opens in the Brooke St Pier next month.

One block back from the pier, The Mill on Morrison has been taken over by transport businessman and former wakeboarder Andrew Tonks, who has brought in South ­African-born chef John Botha from The Aproneers.

Mr Tonks said a name change and new direction were planned for midyear.

In North Hobart, chefs Oskar Rossi and Federica Andrisani are moving their popular pop-up dinners from Criterion St Café to Room For A Pony later this month.

Their innovative, Italian-inspired menu will be on offer from Thursday to Sunday nights from April 23.