The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

Good Food Guide 2018: the year in restaurant and dining trends

Callan Boys
Callan Boys

Beyond city limits: a dish at Brae in Birregurra, Victoria.
Beyond city limits: a dish at Brae in Birregurra, Victoria. Colin Page

Restaurant group expansion, food precincts and the penetration of technology are key restaurant trends from the past 12 months and each of them are interconnected issues. We've also seen restaurants beyond the city limits go from strength to strength and a sharper focus on sustainability of staff instead of just sustainability of produce.

Staff sustainability

Ben Shewry, the owner-chef of Attica in Ripponlea, has instituted a four-day working week for staff.
Ben Shewry, the owner-chef of Attica in Ripponlea, has instituted a four-day working week for staff.Supplied
Advertisement

What is it?

The kitchen is a pressure-cooker environment of high-adrenalin and big egos ideal for exacerbating – or even creating – mental health problems. The hours are long, the work is intense and the financial rewards aren't terrific. Now chefs are talking about what needs to happen to create a workplace that facilitates a better work-life balance and foster physical and mental health. This is a relatively new discussion: and one of the loudest conversations of 2017.

Why?

Now more than ever, the restaurant is the destination.

The theme at 2017's Grow Assembly, a day of TED-style talks in Melbourne aimed at the hospitality industry, was "Sustainability: Mental, Physical, Financial and Environmental".

Advertisement

The death in July of Jeremy Strode, one of the country's most loved and respected chefs, devastated the industry. Chefs and hospitality professionals across Australia asked "how did this happen?" and "what can we do to make sure this never happens again?"

In September, Ben Shewry announced via social media he had implemented a four-day work-week roster for his staff at Attica. "Changing the roster structure to accommodate the fact that cooks are humans, not machines and indeed can have lives as well has been cathartic for not only the team but also the business," said Shewry. Many chefs voiced support for the move.

The Good Food Guide 2018.
The Good Food Guide 2018.Fairfax Media

Diner impact?

If we want a sustainable restaurant industry, rich with healthy and incredible talent, a sustainable workforce is essential. Promoting a healthy work-life balance is also vital for attracting and retaining skilled hospitality staff in an industry that has expanded faster than it has the ability to recruit.

Advertisement

The rise and rise of the restaurant group

What is it?

A growing number of Australia's restaurants are not owned by independent operators but hospitality groups with deep pockets.

Why?

With restaurant profit margins so slim, the economy of scale means restaurant groups can save money by centralising administration and marketing, buying items such as dinnerware in bulk and establishing relationships with farmers to get the best produce at the best price. Groups also have the potential to become vertically integrated, so they own the breweries and farms supplying their restaurants.

Advertisement

When the ink dried on private equity-backed Urban Purveyor Group's acquisition of Neil Perry's Rockpool Group in November, so began a new era of big(ger) business hospitality in Australia. A week after the formation of Rockpool Dining Group, Vue de Monde's Shannon Bennett announced he had sold a major whack of his hospitality empire to Singapore's largest property developer. Perry and Bennett said the sales were needed to finance their plans for growth.

Rockpool's expansion has been aggressive. The group's portfolio now includes 60 restaurants across 16 brands including Rosetta, Sake, Spice Temple, Fratelli Fresh, Burger Project and Bavarian Bier Cafe. Good Food also understands Vue Group has plans to open 10 more Benny Burger stores across Melbourne and Sydney in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile Justin Hemmes has been expanding Merivale's holdings with more venues outside of the Sydney CBD. The group CEO bought Mascot's Tennyson Hotel for $37.5 million at auction in December and Northern Beaches pub the Collaroy for a reported $21 million in August. It is believed that Hemmes' most recent purchase, Enmore's Vic on the Park hotel, set him back more than $25 million.

Melbourne's Lucas Group also introduced Chin Chin to Sydney, Andrew McConnell opened another Meatsmith, the Bentley blokes launched Cirrus in Sydney, and Adelaide welcomed restaurateur Simon Kardachi's ninth establishment, Japanese grill-house Shobosho.

Diner impact?

Advertisement

These deep-pocketed operators don't always make it easy for the independent restaurateur to strike out on their own. Competition is fierce. Rental prices are fiercer. And a future where every restaurant is the product of a different behemoth is a depressing thought. These guys know how to produce a consistent product, though. They have the money to attract ripper chefs and design knock-out dining rooms. A restaurant group can also provide staff training opportunities and room for employees to move within the company that many smaller businesses cannot.

Here's hoping that when the big boys behind these brands do decide to call it a day, their companies stick to whatever principles made that chef great in the first place. A Rockpool Bar and Grill showcasing Australian produce in London sounds like a beaut idea, for example. A Bavarian swillhouse serving limp salads in every new food precinct does not.

The food precincts of the future

What is it?

The food courts we know and tolerate – the cookie-cutter ones in shopping malls with a couple of fast-food franchises, a kebab store, ready-to-eat sushi and bain-marie of butter chicken – are morphing into food precincts. Places such as Collins Square in Docklands, Sydney's Tramsheds at Harold Park, The Streets of Barangaroo, and Fish Lane next to South Bank in Brisbane.

Advertisement

These are places where hatted restaurants share floor space with artisan bakers, boutique roasters and fast-casual national players. A food precinct will celebrate individuality and quirkiness – focus groups aren't fond of uniformity.

Why?

The acceleration of e-commerce and its disruption of the bricks-and-mortar retail sector. Certain property groups have created these food precincts to capitalise on modern "foodie culture" by creating new restaurant destinations. If you're going to build a new block of offices or residential apartments, it helps to have attractive food options nearby.

Diner impact?

Do these hot new food precincts herald the end of smaller and perhaps less fashionable eateries that served the suburbs for years? Maybe not. Natalina Zlatevska is a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Technology Sydney and believes food precincts have the potential to be a positive addition to a community.

Advertisement

"A community interest in good quality food is helpful for all players in the industry," says Zlatevska. "The open design of food halls also encourages consumers to try different types of food offerings that they might not be used to. This could encourage consumers to later try food from restaurants and cafes that they might not have before."

Diners can order from Belles Hot Chicken, Mr Burger and Supertaco via an app at Hightail, Collins Square, Melbourne.
Diners can order from Belles Hot Chicken, Mr Burger and Supertaco via an app at Hightail, Collins Square, Melbourne.Eugene Hyland

Tech at the table

What is it?

Dining out in 2017 is a multi-platformed barrage of apps and technology. Make a booking using Dimmi or OpenTable. Reply "Y" to a confirmation text. Maybe order your food from your phone instead talking to a person. Share your meal with everyone via Instagram stories. Split your bill with Groupee. Earn dining points with Liven. Complain about the meal on Facebook instead of having a conversation with the floor team. Or don't leave home at all and use UberEats to cater a six-hour Seinfeld binge.

Advertisement

Why?

Technology influences every part of our life in the modern economy, including going to restaurants and bars. Provided the technology is maintaining or increasing the level of service in a restaurant, it can be beneficial to both restaurant and customer.

100 Burgers Group, for instance, developed its own app for customers to order food and booze at its Hightail bar in Collins Square.

"Instead of one central kitchen, food at Hightail is provided by Super Taco, Mr Burger and Belles," says 100 Burgers founder Daragh Kan.

"We needed a way for people to be able to order from all of those food options – as well as drinks from the bar – without having to visit the counter of each individual venue."

Advertisement

"We also created the app because I think everyone is heading in this direction. We're always looking at ways to make it easier for customers spend time at the venue."

Ordering food with an app is unlikely to catch on at traditional restaurants where face-to-face service is an integral part of the experience. Making a reservation online though? Punters love it. Dimmi, OpenTable or in-house online booking systems are on the websites of almost all hatted restaurants.

The reservation app market is even bigger in the US, where developers are always aiming to release the next game-changer. A new one on the US market is Nowait. Owned by Yelp, Nowait only features restaurants that don't take reservations. The app shows how long the wait is for a restaurant and allows you to put your name on the list to receive a message when it's time to start making tracks for your seating.

Diner impact?

Many. You just need to find the right app to suit your needs. Using online booking systems, restaurants also have the potential to keep files on regular customers. This isn't a Big Brother scenario, but a way to make sure the bar has your favourite whisky in stock, or that you're seated at your favourite table – the one next to the fern by the left-side window.

Advertisement
Santa Vittoria Regional Restaurant of the Year: The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery & Store, outside Hobart.
Santa Vittoria Regional Restaurant of the Year: The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery & Store, outside Hobart.Peter Mathew

Destination dining is where it's at

What is it?

The first national Good Food Guide is stacked with restaurants outside the city limits representing some of the most exciting eating in Australia, from three-hatted Brae in Birregurra and two-hatted Igni in Geelong, to humble gems such as Fleet in Brunswick Heads, NSW, and the warm hug of Rodney Dunn's Agrarian Kitchen Eatery & Store, half-an-hour's drive from Hobart. Now more than ever, the restaurant is the destination.

Why?

Advertisement

Brae executive chef Dan Hunter believes regional restaurants have the opportunity to provide the themes of true hospitality and relaxation that are somewhat missing from many city venues.

"It's not just about get in, get out, and go to a meeting, or get in, get out, and meet your mates at the bar," says Hunter.

"It's a longer, more relaxed experience. It's difficult to offer that in a city restaurant. Our restaurant is as much about connecting with the place – the place being Brae, the property – as it is sitting in the dining room consuming the food we put in front of you."

Diner impact?

A healthy regional dining and tourism market will likely entice more talent to open restaurants outside the CBD, such as former Eleven Bridge Street and Rockpool chef Phil Wood, who will be on the pans at Point Leo Estate's ambitious new restaurant when it opens on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula next week.

The national Good Food Guide 2018, in partnership with Citi and Vittoria, is available from newsagencies, bookstores and via thestore.com.au/goodfood, RRP $29.99

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.

Sign up
Callan BoysCallan Boys is editor of SMH Good Food Guide, restaurant critic for Good Weekend and Good Food writer.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement