Painting sets theme for The Glass House restaurant

STAFF of The Glass House may have been mistaken for the Pied Piper’s troupe on Hobart’s waterfront.

The Glasshouse cocktail bar has purchased a major work, Miss Fishfingers by Tasmanian artist Michael McWilliam of Longford.

JOURNEYING across the Hobart waterfront with a ukulele player in tow, the staff of Hobart’s newest restaurant may have been mistaken for the Pied Piper’s troupe.

High-end cocktail bar and restaurant The Glass House, in the new Brooke St Pier, will open next week.

Islington owners John Goodyear and David Meredith have snapped up former Iron Chef star Ikuei Arakane to design a Japanese-inspired menu with fresh Tasmanian ingredients.

Yesterday, Mr Goodyear and his staff collected the restaurant’s centrepiece – the painting Miss Fish Fingers, by Tasmanian artist Michael McWilliams – carting it on foot from the Handmark Gallery in Salamanca to the pier.

“Our architect Robert [Morris-Nunn] came to an exhibition a year ago and sent us an email saying ‘I’ve got the perfect painting for you’,” Mr Goodyear said.

“We came down a week or so later and bought it on the spot.

“We’re trying to set a new benchmark with The Glass House. Hobart is top of the pops right now – it’s the place to come and the location we have deserves something special.”

Mr Goodyear said the painting inspired the theme for the entire restaurant.

“We’ve got some stainless steel tables and we’ve taken the fish and seaweed theme and had that etched into the top of the steel plus we’ve used the colours as the palette for the whole place,” he said.

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