This was published 8 years ago
Sydney food: Artist Charles Billich dines at Ananas Bar and Brasserie at The Rocks
By Georgia Waters
WHO
Charles Billich, artist
WHERE
Ananas Bar & Brasserie, The Rocks
Ananas Bar & Brasserie offers a classic French bistro menu and surrounds it with high-gloss and glamour.Credit: David Clemson
WHY
"Ananas is a very sophisticated restaurant – I like the atmosphere, the position, the building, because it's an old warehouse converted into an elegant restaurant. I enjoy the desserts, and the sweetness of not only the desserts but the personnel.
"I would like to live in The Rocks [the location of his gallery, Billich Gallery] but my wife is too frightened to leave me alone there at night. I commute between Darlinghurst, our penthouse, and The Rocks. An artist normally does not want to commute. When I'm elsewhere in the world, I have a studio in which I live."
Charles Billich.
WHAT
"Normally I have the very rustic and frugal choice of mussels or steak tartare. I judge a restaurant by how they prepare a steak tartare, the texture and the seasoning of the meat. It's quite an art to prepare a good steak tartare. I do it myself. Normally I put a little vodka in it, which I actually add to everything, so when you come and have dinner with me don't eat and drive."
ABOUT
"I often cook at home, just myself and my wife, and sometimes I even cook for 50 people or more, on occasion. I pretend to be a master chef and our gallery can accommodate quite a lot of people. But mainly it's done by a caterer when we give parties.
"When I'm in Croatia I live on the boat and normally park it where there is a cluster of restaurants. Life on the boat is very nice, in the summer of course. I work on board, and sometimes I do my cooking on board. A local fisherman brings us mussels which they just caught overnight.
"Next year I have an exhibition in Paris. I will live there at the Shangri-La, which has fantastic restaurants as you can image. I'll be working in Paris for a couple of months prior to [the exhibition opening]. Ananas reminds me of some of the beautiful restaurants around the world, and some of the items on the menu are a bit akin to the ones at the restaurants at the [Shangri-La Paris]."
Intense: The vibe at Ananas is akin to a date.Credit: Andy Vermeulen
ANANAS BAR & BRASSERIE, THE ROCKS
9259 5668, ananas.com.au
Entrees $17-$27, mains $33-$52, dessert $14-$19. $130 for two, plus drinks.
★★★★☆
REVIEW
We are thanked for being on time as we arrive for our reservation at Ananas Bar & Brasserie on a Friday evening. "We really appreciate it," the hostess tells us graciously. What's not so gracious, Sydney, is the kind of behaviour that might have prompted us to be thanked just for holding up our end of the bargain. That means that when we ask an establishment to keep a table for us at a certain time, we arrive at that time. Let's all resolve to do better.
Ananas offers a very classic French bistro menu and surrounds it with high-gloss and glamour. The ceiling is high with exposed beams and hanging lamps, with murals and mirrors lining the exposed brick walls, and paper-lined tables. Gold pineapple-shaped lamps (the fruit is called "ananas" in almost every language but English) line the top of banquette seats. In an atmosphere like this, it's no surprise that almost every diner looks to be on a date.
The menu doesn't stray far from tradition, listing each dish by its French title. There's no reworking, no "our versions of". It begins with oysters and dressed blue crab, moving through charcuterie, including terrines of duck and ham; snails with garlic butter and hazelnut; and French onion soup. Larger courses are flounder grenobloise, steak frites and roast chicken with leek mousse and truffle. There's a lot of meat, but a separate menu caters for vegetarians with a substantial list of four entrees and five mains such as truffled gnocchi with cauliflower puree and pickled walnuts, and wild mushrooms with a slow-cooked egg and frisee salad.
It's early, so we decide to order glasses of wine and a series of smaller plates to split between the table. Service is attentive and, yes, sweet, and we're offered warm home-made rye bread and butter and an amuse-bouche of pea soup. The wine list is almost entirely French, with about 20 by the glass. We consider glasses of non-vintage champagne, but settle on chenin blanc to start.
Our first dish is chicken liver parfait, paired with a pile of sharp prune and vinegar conserve and thick toasted brioche. The parfait is faultless – sweet, smooth and fudgy in texture – and could only be improved by the addition of a pile of cornichons alongside.
Next, a citrus and cognac-cured ocean trout is sliced thinly and plated almost geometrically, with two tiny "petit potato galettes'' (or posh potato gems). It's delicate and well-balanced, with fine slices of radish and cucumber for texture.
Like Charles Billich, I adore beef tartare, and find it not only an excellent measure by which to judge a kitchen but next to impossible to pass up when there's opportunity to order it. Unlike Billich, however, it's something I would never prepare at home. The Ananas tartare is one of the best I've eaten in some time, the beef perfectly seasoned and studded with diced cornichons, crowned with a deep-marigold quail's egg yolk. It arrives with more toasted brioche, but we end up eating most of the tartare on its own, and decide we should have ordered a side of pommes frites.
To finish, we consider the Paris-Brest with banana sorbet or peach parfait, but settle on a flaky, caramelised Tarte Tatin with a scoop of cinnamon ice-cream and an espresso, and our little tarriance to Paris is over – until our work demands that we must move there for several months, of course.