Timeless classic’s new owners accept the mantle of excellence
For 15 years, this Northern Tasmanian steakhouse has stood as a beacon of gastronomic excellence. A trio of experienced employees bought it out last year, and they’re making their mark, writes Alex Treacy.
Food and Wine
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The culture of any organisation is set from the top down. It is one of the unshakeable rules of business.
It is the reason why I am at Launceston’s Black Cow Bistro, which sits among a pantheon of Northern restaurants, including Timbre, Stillwater Restaurant and Grain of the Silos, widely regarded as responsible for the city’s reputation for gastronomic excellence.
About 16 months ago, three long-term employees of the restaurant – Nabin Gurung (executive chef), Thomas Tyler (general manager) and Ethan Han (restaurant manager/sommelier) – purchased it from its founders, who set up shop in 2008.
Craig Will, James Welsh and Bianca Welsh – not uncoincidentally, also the trio behind the excellent Stillwater – earned for Black Cow a reputation of artistic flair in the kitchen and sedulous service on the floor.
They set the restaurant’s culture from the top down. Have Messrs Gurung, Tyler and Han accepted the torch passed down to them and added their own fire?
We are seated and immediately lapped with crisp, starched napkins – an act of hospitality that has always thrilled me.
Our knowledgeable waitress briefs us on the menu. Sourdough, baked daily in-house. Fish of the day, blue-eye trevalla. Wagyu scotch fillet and rib-eye on the bone, priced by the 100g. These are the sizes to choose from. Slow-cooked wagyu rump, served medium, tending medium rare. This cannot be changed due to the cooking method.
There is a professionalism here. A sense that you have accepted an invitation to be a part of a choreographed event, put on for your benefit. The menu is tight. Nine entrees, six steaks, one fish and five desserts. There is a detectable Korean influence (both the recently departed Ms Welsh and Mr Han have Korean heritage).
There is white tamari sauce with the kingfish sashimi. Smokey yuzu ketchup for the chargrilled octopus. Crispy-skin Scottsdale pork belly with gochujang and mirin. House-made kimchi.
We order a half-dozen Boomer Bay oysters kilpatrick with smokey pancetta and Lean-To-Kitchen worcestershire ($30), and the pork belly ($28), which comes with pickled celery and black sesame seeds, as an entree.
The oysters are small, delicate. They are not the plump, pregnant oysters of Barilla or Great Oyster bays. They bathe within a pool of
sauce and thin, crispy pancetta strips. Lemon juice gives the oysters acidity, worcestershire bestows umami.
Even more impressive than the oysters is the pork belly. The dish is common in Northern Tasmania’s posher restaurants. One must be imaginative to stand out.
The gochujang and mirin sauce on which the meat sits is revelatory. It elevates the mild, succulent meat, imparting a savoury heat that can’t be matched by a more conventional pairing such as apples.
We progress to our steaks, the 300g
slow-cooked Robbins Island wagyu rump ($75) and 300g Great Southern Pinnacle scotch fillet ($65), with sides of steamed green beans with lemon, elderflower and golden sesame ($12) and kimchi ($12).
The steaks come pre-cut into strips, served together on a board – a nice touch, perfect for sharing. We are each presented a plate with potato galette doused in Dijon cream and chives, and a ramekin of Cafe de Paris butter, which is the consistency of mousse.
For two cuts of meat that both come from exactly the same animal, their respective tastes could not be more different than if one of them were reared on the surface of the moon.
The scotch fillet has seams of fat rippling through it. The taste is almost caramel, the meat bursting with juice.
The wagyu rump, by contrast, is firm and grassy. The flavour is pure beef – by cooking it sous vide (cooking at a precise temperature in a water bath), there are less moving parts, no fat needed to cook the cut. The beef is the hero.
It’s a Monday night and the restaurant is heaving – we count 15 bookings seated before 7pm. There would have been more after we left to our second destination, drag trivia at the Newstead Tennis & Squash Centre, hosted by the inimitable Enya Arsenal (we came second).
Mr Han says being a restaurateur is not easy. Fine food and happy customers are built atop a mountain of order forms, insurance and accounting meetings.
But the spiritual rewards are rich.
“We are really focused on consistency, the level of service, the quality of the produce,” he says.
“But people notice. They come back. New customers become regulars.”
Black Cow Bistro
70 George St, Launceston.
Opening hours: Mon–Wed, 5.30pm–9.30pm; Thurs, 5.30–10pm. Fri–Sat, 5.30–10.30pm.
On the menu
Boomer Bay oysters kilpatrick with pancetta and worcestershire $30, crispy-skin Scottsdale pork belly with gochujang and mirin, pickled celery and black sesame seeds $28, 300g slow-cooked Robbins Island rump $75, 300g Great Southern Pinnacle scotch fillet $65, steamed green beans with lemon, elderflower and golden sesame $12, house-made kimchi $12.
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