The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

Jamie's Italian in Canberra - what we know so far

Kirsten Lawson
Kirsten Lawson

A peek inside Jamie's restaurant in Civic.
A peek inside Jamie's restaurant in Civic.via Facebook

If you were cynical - and why wouldn't you be with an empire of this size and spread - you would have to think the folk at Jamie's Italian are playing us all in their refusal to release any information about the new eatery, right up to opening day.

This is a publicity dream - building anticipation, chatter, speculation and general excitement.

We've written a few stories about the high-profile opening in recent months and each time getting information has been excruciating.

Advertisement

Jamie's has proven one of the most tightly controlled outfits we've come across. No information is allowed out without approval from London. This kind of control - which extends to menus, also written and approved at HQ - is presumably crucial to maintaining quality control across more than 30 restaurants, where you can't afford to have a rogue eatery go its own way.

But it becomes ludicrous when they won't even fess up to what day they're opening.

The publicity folk say they don't want to be overrun on day one, so they won't tell us until the day itself.

All we know is they're open by Wednesday, November 6, since that's the day we've been invited for lunch, so you'd have to assume an opening of November 4.

We also haven't been allowed in to take photos - they've got their own photographer coming in to do pictures first, but meantime some Canberrans have been invited in for lunch and dinner this week for the eatery's soft opening, including tourism officials and officials from the ACT Multicultural Festival.

Advertisement

Sporting groups, too, we're told. And they're tweeting their own photos, which rather undermines attempts at control.

Jamie's Italian is in Bunda Street in the city, in the Canberra Centre below the Dendy Cinema, in the restaurant space formerly occupied by Kingsleys Steakhouse. It is one of about 30 Jamie's Italian restaurants around the world, and three in Australia – the Sydney restaurant opening two years ago and Perth earlier this year.

Head chef is Australian-born, New Zealand-trained Nick Haszard. The managing director of the Pacific Restaurant Group, Adam Heathcote, and executive chef of Jamie's in Australia David Clarke will make an appearance during opening week.

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

Sign up
Kirsten LawsonKirsten Lawson is news director at The Canberra Times

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement