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$2 million Pacific Club Bondi Beach opens on Campbell Parade

Scott Bolles
Scott Bolles

Chef Bret Cameron, owner Matt Williams, and designer Michael McCann at the newly opened Pacific Club Bondi Beach.
Chef Bret Cameron, owner Matt Williams, and designer Michael McCann at the newly opened Pacific Club Bondi Beach.James Alcock

When a restaurant from the designer behind Mr Wong, Felix and Victor Churchill is unveiled, Sydney diners know to take note.

Rushcutters Bay-based Michael McCann has had a heavy pull from overseas clients in recent years, his work popping up everywhere from Turkey to the US, but last weekendthe McCann-designed Pacific Club Bondi Beach swung open its doors.

Co-owner Matt Williams confirms rumours they've punted more than $2 million on the project.

More than $2 million has been spent on the refurbishment, which includes handmade tiles from India.
More than $2 million has been spent on the refurbishment, which includes handmade tiles from India.James Alcock
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And it shows. The tiles under the bar were hand-carved in India, a 1950s Bondi Beach scene has been painstakingly recreated as a mosaic, the removable floating brass fireplace hand-crafted by Coloforge, and the detail on exterior joinery extraordinary.

"We wanted something that looked like it had been here a long time," says Williams, who has had a broad hospitality career as a bar owner, publican and organiser of food festivals.

They haven't skimped in the kitchen either, snaring chef Bret Cameron, the former head chef from chef-hatted Harvest Newrybar.

Bret Cameron, former head chef from chef-hatted Harvest Newrybar, has taken over the kitchens at the Pacific Club.
Bret Cameron, former head chef from chef-hatted Harvest Newrybar, has taken over the kitchens at the Pacific Club.James Alcock

He'll oversee a luxe oyster bar and cook at a hand-crafted wood-fired grill.

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The all-day venue kicks off with burnt orange and wattleseed porridge for breakfast, moves through lunch dishes including charred octopus with fermented capsicum and pork collar with blackened cabbage, and for dinner you can tuck into flounder with pickled mussels, warrigal greens and aniseed myrtle.

Open daily 7am to 11pm.

182 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, 02 9057 5775, thepacificclub.com.au.

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Scott BollesScott Bolles writes the weekly Short Black column in Good Food.

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