Bondi's Blanca team to open sister bar venue

A food star back in his native Finland, Bondi resident Tomi Bjorck​ is set to add to his growing imprint of seaside Sydney venues. Unlike most celebrity chefs who open restaurants in Australia, Bjorck actually lives here most of the time, intermittently jetting back to Finland to check on his restaurant empire or to shoot episodes of the Scandi MasterChef.

But his next move is a local one, with a new venue opening next door to Blanca, his Hall Street Bondi project with chef Sam Cole. The duo has taken the former site of Mr Moustache, where they'll open a new bar-eatery in September.

"It'll be a 36-seater. A bar is something we always felt would be a good addition to Blanca Dining. You'll be able to grab a quick bite with a beer. There'll be a raw bar and skewer [dishes]," Bjorck tells Good Food. Despite his long-haul existence, the surf-loving chef wouldn't swap it.

"I can have work meetings with Sam down at the beach, it's good," he says.

BYE, BYE BENJAMIN

That was quick. Benjamin & Daughters, the Double Bay eatery that slid into the space where Fish Face previously traded, has closed. A phone message at the eatery says it is shut for renovations and will reopen this week as ABC Cucina. Terry Durack gave Benjamin & Daughters a creditable 14/20 earlier this year.

"Former Fratelli Fresh co-founder Karen McDonald did indeed have a Jewish grandmother (whose name was Benjamin). But you still have to admire the chutzpah in opening a New York-style Jewish restaurant in Sydney's own lower east side, Double Bay, even if it is non-kosher," Durack penned in March.

FLY BY MIKE

If you're wondering if there is an appetite for good food at our airports, Mike McEnearney's Kitchen by Mike at Sydney International Airport could provide the blueprint.

The ex-Rockpool head chef has travellers queuing for his tucker, and his Fly by Mike takeaway packs have become the carry-on luggage of choice for many travellers.

Tarmac chatter suggests McEnearney has been approached about a second site at the airport, which the chef confirmed but said there were still a number of hurdles to jump before a deal gets over the line. And good news for non-travelling Sydneysiders, the chef is confident the planned Kitchen by Mike outlet in Surry Hills will open before the end of the year.

DUCK INTO KAREELA

It's 20 years since chef Carl Jensen's restaurant in the shadow of Tom Ugly's Bridge became a destination for its duck dishes. Jensen has been busy in the intervening years with Summer Salt restaurant in Cronulla, but he and his wife Brook have opened another restaurant, in Kareela Village, which is closer to his original.

Jensen's has a modern fitout courtesy of Giant Design, and a few winks at the past.

"Our duck supplier says we're one of his biggest customers in Sydney," Brook Jensen tells Good Food. "Carl has brought back the banana pudding he used to do. We really wanted to do a restaurant with food that wasn't over the top, just good modern Australian," she adds.

Open Tuesday to Sunday, lunch and dinner

1/13 Freya Street, Kareela Village, 02 9528 8433

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Carriageworks and Vivid Sydney are coming together as light and fire this Friday with a Night Market at Carriageworks with fire as its theme. Indigenous chef Zach Green will school on the art of fire pit cooking, while guest curator Lennox Hastie will do fire cooking demonstrations. Hastie has some skin in the fire game, as co-owner of Surry Hills Firedoor restaurant, and argues fire is becoming detached from our everyday lives. "Fire is what makes us uniquely human … Put simply, fire changed who we are," he says.