First, the bad news. Alberta’s, the soulful Busselton eatery opened in June 2022 by life and business partners Kirsty Marchant and Ben Ing – she was the head gardener at feted Copenhagen fine diner Noma; he was Noma’s head chef – has announced that March will be its last month trading as a restaurant.

The good news? Alberta’s isn’t going anywhere and Marchant and Ing are still very much committed to championing south-west produce and producers: they’re simply exploring what hospitality can look like beyond the typical restaurant model.

“It’s not like we’re fading out and are going to stop being Alberta’s,” says Marchant.

“It’s now about all the things that we wanted to do when we first started planning and dreaming about Alberta’s.

“Now we’re asking ourselves: what are the most important things that we want to do? What do we love and really want to do? We’ll still be feeding people, but just in a different way to the typical restaurant or café model.”

To be fair, Alberta’s never kowtowed to conventional restaurant thinking. (It’s telling, I think, that management explicitly badged Alberta’s as a “kitchen and store” rather than restaurant.)

“Alberta’s isn’t closing, we’re just changing. Just like the seasons.”

Kirsty Marchant

Over the past 20 months, Marchant and Ing weren’t afraid to trial different formats and offerings based on seasonal, commercial and “what-would-happen-if-we-tried-this?” factors. When it opened, Alberta’s led with elite coffee, tea, baked goods, nourishing soups and other hallmarks of the breakfast and brunch game.

Lunch trade soon followed, along with set menu dinners: somewhat inevitable considering the couple’s pedigree. (Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant that the couple met at, is famous for its intricate, Nordic-influenced tasting menus and is regarded by many as one of the world’s most influential restaurant.)

Eventually, team Alberta’s settled on its current four-day-a-week à la carte dinner offering: a decision that’s as much about responding to guests’ behaviour and looking after staff. (The space’s searing open-fire hearth is zero fun to cook over during a hot summer day.)

So what can guests expect from the new, restaurant-less Alberta’s 2.0? Events, it would seem, will be a big part of the space’s offering. As we go to press, Ing is hosting another intimate fermentation workshop today.

The response to a successful January barbecue event with local winemaker LAS Vino suggests the Alberta’s crowd don’t mind a knees-up and Marchant and Ing are excited about inviting friends from around the world to join them in Busselton. (Closing Alberta’s as a four-day-a-week restaurant will also allow Marchant and Ing to say yes to events outside of the restaurant and further afield.)

Dinners and lunches, of course, will still be part of the Alberta’s offering: think intimate communal dinners bringing together 16 strangers to share food, conversation and drink.

For those keen to experience Alberta’s one final time in its current guise, the restaurant is accepting online bookings for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday night until Saturday, March 23. After that, it will host a series of special à la carte dinners for the restaurant’s last week (which coincides with Easter and includes a public surcharge on Good Friday on Friday, March 29). Details about a ticketed event for the final service on Saturday, March 30 will also be announced.

While the Alberta’s announcement will shock many, Marchant and Ing believe the change of direction is essential if they want to establish a healthy, long-term business that looks after producers, staff and – most important of all – two thirty-somethings running a hospitality business solo without backers.

“For our business to remain sustainable, it needs to serve us as well as we serve others,” says Marchant.

“Alberta’s isn’t closing, we’re just changing. Just like the seasons.”

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