Batter battle looms in Watsons Bay

Fraser Short is poised to open a fine dining restaurant at the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel but his immediate battle this summer will focus on more modest fare: fish and chips.

Short has built a street frontage takeaway behind the Hotel's soon to be relaunched Beach Club, just a few seagull flaps away from the Doyle family's fish and chip outlet. Next weekend Short's operation will start selling fish and chips.

"(It) will give the nearby Doyles kiosk a run for their money," a spokesman for the Watto Bay Hotel told Good Food. The pub's co-owner, Fraser Short, was a little more diplomatic about the looming battle of the batter.

"I think the experience coming to Watsons Bay for fish and chips has been tortured, with long queues," he says.

Short has also invested heavily in a new kitchen crew with formerly toqued chef John Pye and Keystone's Dave Penistone joining the landmark pub.

"We're talking about whether we should turn the Sunset Room into a fine dining restaurant next year. There isn't a lot like that out this way apart from Catalina and Sailors Club," Short says.