Issue Twenty Six PERTH

Editor’s Letter

Editor’s
Letter

Welcome to Issue 26 where we finally make it back to Western Australia – albeit only dipping a toe in the water of Australia’s largest state with an issue dedicated entirely to Perth.

It made perfect sense to bring in the big guns to help us navigate Perth’s bubbling foodservice scene – a passionate advocate for all things WA, and a man with much more than his finger on the pulse; quite possibly the beating heart itself.

I shall keep this short, and hand over to our special guest editor Max Veenhuyzen who was instrumental in directing us to an array of venues and chefs, and of course a bombardment of the best red meat dishes on offer in the fine city of Perth.

Please enjoy our Perth issue and if you haven’t visited Western Australia in a while, or never at all, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

Guest Editor’s Letter

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Guest
Editor’s
Letter

Welcome to Perth, capital of Western Australia and home to sun, sand, surf, and food writer and this issue’s guest editor, Max Veenhuyzen.

When Meat & Livestock Australia asked me if I wanted to be guest editor of the Perth edition of Rare Medium that you’re reading, I said yes straight away. Not because it’s been a while since Rare Medium came to Western Australia and I wanted to make sure they were talking to all the right people. And not because it meant working with talented pals Myffy Rigby, Jason Loucas, Anthony McFarlane and Rare Medium editor Mary-Jane Morse to share Perth’s best with the rest of Australia. (Having said that, linking up with an all-star crew certainly didn’t suck).

I said yes because, like many West Australian eaters, I’m both proud and pumped about Perth’s food and drink scene and really want to share its really good bits with as many people as possible. I say this not because it’s my job, but because I’d love it if every visitor to P-Town left here wanting to come back as soon as possible.

I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence and tell you that you won’t get a bad meal in Perth. But armed with the right intel (intel you’ll find in these pages, incidentally) you won’t just eat and drink very well: you’ll also, I hope, get a sense of the magic, the resilience and the underdog spirit that makes Perth, Perth.

But don’t just take my word for it. Listen to the story of Donovan Macdonald, the unlikely hero behind one of Australia’s great barbecue experiences. Coo at glamour shots of some of the city’s best dishes. Familiarise yourself with the emerging west coast cooks thrilling diners by incorporating flavours from Thailand, Italy and Nyoongar Boodja, the traditional name of Western Australia’s southwest. The west has much to offer hungry and thirsty folks and, naturally, beef and lamb often star in these good times.

Welcome – or, in Nyoongar, wanjoo – to Perth. I hope you have the best time. And if someone ever asks you to head out this way, I suggest you say yes straight away, too.

Max Veenhyuzen
Journalist
@maxveenhuyzen

Pat’s Picks

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One day in 2015, Donovan Macdonald decided to spend his tax return money on a smoker. A state manager at Woolworths, until this point, he had basically zero interest in food and less in cooking.

He was newly single, looking for a new hobby, and could’ve readily put the money towards fishing gear or a jet ski. Luckily for us he didn’t, if he had, Perth would be missing one of its biggest new names in food, and Australia’s barbecue world would be significantly the poorer. This coin-toss decision changed Macdonald’s life, setting him on the path to glory, and the road to becoming Big Don, of Big Don’s Smoked Meats.

Step into the thousand-square-metre warehouse that Big Don’s now occupies in Ashfield in suburban Perth on a Saturday and you’re probably too late. Chances are there’s already a hundred people ahead of you in the line. And even if you had gotten here earlier – this whole shebang sold out online days ago.

Behold – a Big Don’s barbeque platter. Order in advance but be quick, they sell out in around seven minutes.

Big Don’s isn’t like other restaurants. It has no chairs, no tables, no plates and no glasses, and it only opens for business one day a week. It was started by a non-chef who began at 32 with a project that grew out of his backyard. There have been bumps along the way – a $30,000 fine for running a food business without a permit in the early years – but it has grown into a phenomenon.

“Macdonald’s brisket is a juicy, beefy ode to patience and nailing the one-percenters,” wrote Max Veenhuyzen in a review in The West Australian earlier this year. “One percenter” in this context refers to the very specific fine details that make the difference between good barbecue and great barbecue. Big Don now has it down to a fine art and has gathered a team around him that’s so dedicated to their shared vision that he hasn’t lost an employee in six years of trade.

So, what’s the vision? It’s brisket. Cooked Texas barbecue style – specifically in the low-and-slow Central Texas style made extra famous by Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin. And Macdonald’s vision isn’t just for his smoked meats to be the best in Perth or in Australia – he wants them to be the best, full stop, in or out of the Lone Star state.

Briskets hitting the smoker at Big Don’s

Brisket barbecue is a tradition that began in central Texas with German and Czech migrants in the 19th century. Barbecue is made with a variety of different meats around Texas, but when you’re talking central Texas, you’re talking beef and you’re talking brisket, hot smoked per European tradition, indirectly. Meaning the fire and the thing you’re smoking are in different places, rather than the meat being right over the coals. At its most basic, this is accomplished with a brick box next to a fire set up in a way that smoke and heat is drawn through the box.

Today, most barbecue is cooked in an offset smoker of some kind – usually a big drum where the cooking happens and a smaller firebox that supplies the smoke and heat. The construction of these smokers is a natural evolution in an oil state like Texas where tanks, drums and skilled metalworkers are in good supply. It’s also something easily pictured in Australia, and particularly in WA.

In central Texas, the smokers are usually fired with post oak. At Big Don’s they’re looking for a clean, smokeless fire, but there are points in the cook when more smoke is desirable, especially to achieve the bark, the sought-after crust on the meat. Macdonald uses jarrah, a native redgum hardwood, partly because it’s readily available and partly because he likes the idea of his barbecue having a West Australian accent all its own.

Donovan Macdonald at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

If you look at the places regarded as the very best barbecue joints in central Texas – Snow’s in Lexington, City Market in Luling, Smitty’s and Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Louie Mueller in Taylor, and of course Franklin in Austin – you’re not going to find wild variation in their menus. It’s beef – ribs, sausage, maybe prime rib, and something Americans call “beef clod”, a lean chuck subprimal about the size of a volleyball cut from the shoulder of the carcase.

Asking for brisket specifically is something that, according to The Texas Monthly, only began in the 1960s. Before that, Joe Capello of City Market in Luling told the magazine, customers would just come in and ask for beef. “If they wanted it fatty, we’d give them the brisket. If they wanted lean, then we’d do the shoulder clod.”

Sausage is thick and red, smoky as hell, often enriched with jalapenos or cheese; the good ones break with an audible snap. Pulled pork, pork ribs and the occasional pork chop are standbys on today’s menus in Texas, as is smoked turkey. Sides run to potato salad, mac and cheese, coleslaw, crackers, bread, pickles, and maybe chips. Texas originally being Mexico, you might even see the odd avocado. Everyone does beans. It’s a magical intermingling of central European and Mexican traditions with frontier attitude and cowboy appetite. Just about everything is sold by the pound, the pint, or the quart.

“Texas barbecue is sliced, so you don’t cook it to the point where it’s pulled, but it’s far beyond well done – about 100, 110 celsius,” says Macdonald. Without cooking it that far you’re going to get a tough piece of muscle. Good brisket is juicy and very tender. You should be able to pick it up without it falling apart, but you should also be able to readily pull it apart with your fingers. The challenge is that you’ve got two muscles in a brisket. There’s the flat, or the lean, and the point, or the fatty part. “The point is easy enough to cook, but the lean is very challenging, so to cook both of them perfectly, these two separate cuts on one, that’s what makes brisket the Rolls-Royce of barbecue.”

Big Don’s brisket – sliced fresh to order in front of your eyes

Back in the day, the places selling the meat were often very basic, more meat shop than restaurant, selling what they could fresh, and smoking the rest – hence the tradition of serving food on a piece of butcher’s paper rather than a plate. Today, even at the best spots, the meat needs to be eaten there and then. That’s why lining up is so often part of the picture – it absolutely must be sliced to order, ideally right in front of you. How the meat is cut in service is as important as how it’s cooked, Macdonald says. Maybe more. “I’d rather have a great cutter on the board and a shit cook than a great cook and a shit cutter.”

Though the Texas barbecue tradition has been around for 150 years, Macdonald says the craft style, which involves longer and slower cooking and resting, is a much more recent thing, really arriving in the last 15 years. “It’s up to 48 hours’ cooking from start to service. The way we’ve designed our business is on the Snow’s model, to have one big party and serve a week’s worth of food in four or five hours.” People have to wait for half an hour or an hour, they can bring camp chairs and BYO and make a real party out of it. “It all plays into the experience.”

The other important thing, as far as Macdonald is concerned, is tight control over the meat he buys. And now that he’s buying 3,000 kilos a month, and needs three different suppliers to cover the order, the suppliers are listening. He says Big Don’s is the only place in Australia getting its brisket trimmed to spec by the packers. “The difference that makes is massive. It’s the single biggest reason our business is successful.”

Two of the smokers in the Big Don’s set up – when two more of these arrive from the US later this year, Don believes he will have the biggest barbeque set up in the world.

Basically, he wants it cut to an American packer brisket specification, meaning they don’t cut into the deckle, the fin or flap that sits on the top of the brisket. “That often gets cut into at an angle and either removed and sold to Korea for barbecue, or just cut into and left. I can’t cut a slashed-up brisket – it doesn’t cook well. I say to packers, if you’re going to take it off, take it off, but if not, don’t cut into it, leave a fully fat-cap-covered brisket, I’ll pay for it, I’ll trim it myself and make sausages with the trim, but it has to be done at this spec or I won’t buy it.”

The absolute sweet spot for Macdonald for beef is a 4-5 marble score Angus x Wagyu cross. “Pureblood Wagyu is too fatty and not suited for barbecue, and a straight Angus is too lean.” He also wants his briskets as big as he can get them. Eight or nine kilos before he trims is good, but five to six is acceptable. “With a brisket that weighs eight kilos, we trim off about two kilos of fat and lean meat, and when we cook it, we’re left with a yield of about 40 per cent, so about three and a half kilos of meat left to sell.” He can then only serve about 80 per cent of that as sliced brisket; the rest needs to be chopped and served in a sandwich or a taco; all in the name of giving the customer the right slice.

Briskets ready to be wrapped

The trimmed raw brisket is dry-brined in a pepper and salt rub (4:1 by volume), with a mixture of pickle juice and mustard going on before the rub. “Pickle juice is just superstition,” says Macdonald. “Honestly, you could just use water.” A finishing salt goes over the top, the mix is pressed firmly into the meat, and then the briskets are left on gastro trays or trolleys uncovered in the cool room for 72 hours. Meanwhile, a thousand sausages get handmade with the brisket trim, mixed with chuck and knuckle, and cold smoked for four hours in natural hog casings.

The Big Don’s crew trim on Tuesday or Wednesday and cook on a Friday. It’s a 12-hour day, with the briskets cooking all day, timed to give them a rest time of 12 hours. “We finish cooking at 205C, and then put it in warmers set at 60C.” That gentle comedown, Macdonald says, allows the fat to render slowly for another 12 hours. When it’s ready to slice the next day, the fat is the texture of warm butter.

“When you get to the front of the line see us cut the meat in front of you, that experience is because of the service model we have,” he says. If Macdonald wanted the line to move faster, or to sell more brisket, or just make life easier, he could pre-slice the meat, and leave it on a pass under a warmer waiting for a waiter or a buzzer. “But that would be an inferior product. The quality of the food and the way we want to present it is more important here than the comfort of the people waiting in the line. Bring a chair, have a beer, play some board games, and make an experience of it.” People love it. “It’s just better than sitting at a pub and waiting for a buzzer.”

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

BTS at Big Don’s Smoked Meats

Donovan Macdonald moved to Australia in 2004, when he was 19 years old. He grew up in Edmonton, a Canadian city not noted for its barbecue. He has no professional kitchen experience outside barbecue and was as happy to have an Up&Go for breakfast as a real meal. He thought he was cooking pretty good meat with his little backyard smoker but then he went to Texas in 2016 and, after standing in line for seven hours to get a taste of Franklin Barbecue, realised he had some way to go. “It wasn’t even the same product,” he says, “it was like night and day.” But the experience didn’t discourage Macdonald, it galvanised him.

When he got back, he immediately got himself an offset smoker – the first of 15 he worked his way through to find one that does what he needs. That first smoker held eight briskets, and he outgrew that in eight months selling barbecue from his yard on Instagram. He’s been selling out brisket for years now, but it’s been this last year that has really seen him pushing the boundaries of how good barbecue in Australia can be.

Big Don’s team – so dedicated to their shared vision that he hasn’t lost an employee in six years of trade

“I think 2023 was our biggest year for improvement,” Macdonald says. This came as a surprise, because he thought by 2021 that what he was doing was the best in Australia, and a really fantastic product. “But having full-time staff these last two or three years, eight guys during the week, and when we’re doing 60 or 70 briskets per cook, it means that John our senior cook has done more briskets in nine months than I did in nine years. Doing that volume means our quality has skyrocketed.” In his book, Franklin Barbecue, Aaron Franklin says something similar about how quickly his cooking evolved once he went pro and got busy in 2009. “I kind of thought I had a handle on things before I opened the trailer, but I quickly realised that I did not,” he writes. “It’s when you start doing something multiple times a day, every day, that you start getting better.”

On any good day now, Macdonald reckons his brisket is as good as the top 10 places in Texas. “My goal is for us to be the best in the world.” He acknowledges that it might seem grandiose for a business so far from the Rio Grande to have ambitions to make world-beating Texas barbecue. “But we’re on a good path, surrounded by good people,” he says. “Why can’t the best barbecue be in Perth?”

Young Guns

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NO QUIET
ON THE
WESTERN FRONT

Thanks to a new generation of chefs bringing chutzpah and bright ideas to the table, the Perth dining scene feels (and tastes) more diverse than ever. Go west indeed.

To paraphrase a certain Ferris Bueller: the West Australian dining scene moves pretty fast. And if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it – even though that “it” feels like it’s changing from week to week.

One moment it could be a hip British wine bar changing the fortunes of a once passe suburb. The next, all eyes are on a low-key eatery that’s harbouring yet another stowaway from the world of fine dining. And then there are the enfants terribles eschewing “traditional” restaurant models and running Asian-inspired barbecue pop-ups, taking over bowling club kitchens, and generally revelling in their role as industry disruptors. In short, when it comes to having options for places to dine and wine, Perth eaters have never had it better.

Sofika Boulton at Sonny’s

While the local dining scene had been steadily building momentum over the past decade, COVID seemed to have hit fast-forward on everything. The combination of a (relatively) easy run through the pandemic, cooking talents returning to or migrating west, plus a captive audience hungry to eat (cancelling an entire state’s annual winter migration to Europe for three years running does wonders for a state’s food scene) all conspired to create one heck of a growth spurt and opportunities galore for emerging talent to step up. The city’s new guard didn’t have to be asked twice.

Some took on the challenge of running a kitchen for the first time. Some decided that the time was right to open a dining room of their own or to expand. And some changed tack on career trajectories to pursue pipe (and sandwich and steak and pinsa) dreams. All – or at least all those mentioned here – brought something delicious and unexpected to the table.

Welcome to the 2024 edition of Perth’s young chefs to watch. They’re looking forward to meeting and cooking for you all.

Beef Massaman Curry at Rym Tarng

ART BUNRAKSA

RYM TARNG

In Thailand, a rym tarng (“next to the road” in Thai) is an open roadside kitchen that feeds and nourishes locals. It’s also the name of a bijou restaurant – yes, it’s next to the road – in suburbia that’s turning heads with its high-definition Thai cookery. Take a bow Art Bunraksa: a Bangkok-born, Perth-raised chef who’s cooked at, among other places, David Thompson’s street food temple Long Chim.

In Bunraksa’s hands, the beef salad is 100 times tastier than the version found at your local Thai takeaway; beef massaman curry is the unctuous, slow-cooked meat of your rice-eating dreams; and chargrilled lamb cutlet finds companionship in a jaew relish made with grilled chilli and tomato. Factor in bubbly, charming service from Bunraksa’s wife Princess and it’s no wonder that competition for one of Rym Tarng’s 16 seats is so fierce.

BLAZE YOUNG

EDWARD & IDA’S

Housemade sausage rolls. Smoked fish on toast. An Instagram-ready beef and Guinness pie, looking all resplendent with its bone marrow chimney: if the menu at this revivalist Northbridge corner pub didn’t make it clear enough, Blaze Young is just a little in love with the counter meal. Yet cooking like hers feels too polished to be described simply as pub grub.

Instead, here’s an inquisitive go-getter wondering out loud how assured kitchen know-how can help old favourites sparkle anew. The results: beef carpaccio gussied up with a Carpetbag-inspired oyster cream; an all-time fish burger modelled on the Fillet-O-Fish; chicken schnitties (bone-in, quarter-bird) that are golden and juicy in all the appropriate places; and waxy fries jazzed up with curry powder. There’s a reason why these dishes are regarded as classics.

ROSE BASS

CORVO

After cutting her teeth at a local Mexican restaurant, Rose Bass celebrated her 21st birthday by moving to London to further advance her cooking career. The move paid off and led to a stint with Marco Pierre White protégé Phil Howard that included Union, Howard’s (then) Michelin-starred restaurant in the French Alps. Claremont Quarter might be a long way from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, yet Bass and the owners behind this polished suburban wine bar inject plenty of European style into guests’ day-to-day.

The open hearth features throughout, from toasting the bread that accompanies house meatballs to rendering wagyu rump into a smoky, juicy wonder. Pale pucks of thin-sliced lamb crunched up with crisp ‘taters is another gratifying moment. Go the chef’s menu and Bass will take care of ordering, leaving you free to direct your energies towards navigating the impressive cellar.

SOFIKA BOULTON

SONNY’S

Sofika Boulton is another member of Perth’s growing fine-dining-chefs-doing-great-things-in-wine-bars fraternity. After ditching her engineering degree to pursue behind the stove, Boulton ended up at Wildflower, COMO The Treasury’s soignee rooftop fine diner where native Australian ingredients rule. Next came helping Le Rebelle owners Liam and Sarah Atkinson open their cocktail bar spin-off Bar Rogue: an ideal primer for taking over the kitchen at this fresh-faced Mount Hawthorn hangout.

Tightly composed, fuss-free plates speak to an instinctive cooking style that combines strawberry tops, white vinegar and shiso to create a cool mignonette for oysters; deploys crème fraiche to make Basque cheesecake extra jiggly and fleet-footed; and trusts fire to bring out the best in fluffy flatbread, and hunky cuts of lamb.

ELLIOTT SAWIRIS

NEXTDOOR

When a neighbourhood butcher shop opens its own restaurant “next door”, eaters will understandably have expectations, certainly when it comes to the calibre of the meat on offer as well as how it’s cooked, at least. Good thing that Gavin Olsen – the second-generation owner of South Perth’s Olsen Butchers – had the good sense to recruit Elliott Sawiris for the family’s ambitious expansion.

A survivor of Perth’s high-volume Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sawiris has the skills to do justice to the top-shelf beef sold at the mothership. While prized Cape Grim ribeyes and assorted cuts of Stone Axe Wagyu (including denver, a fatty part of the chuck) form the cornerstone of the menu, look out for seasonal specials all meticulously grilled over the kitchen’s wood fire hearth.

CHRIS CARAVELLA

TESTUN

Born into a pioneering Italian restaurant family, Chris Caravella’s life as a cook almost feels preordained. Still, that didn’t stop the plucky firebrand from beating his own path to that destiny. After learning the ropes at Fremantle institution Capri Restaurant, Caravella struck out on his own and fled the port city to clock time at other kitchens and broaden his horizons.

Today he’s been adopted by the Trequattrini family and splits his time between neo-trattoria Threecoins & Sons (get the pistachio-encrusted lamb cutlets!) and Testun, a maverick wine bar where Caravella and co-head chef Frank Trequattrini take la vera cucina to unexpected new places. Beef tartare gets a Thai makeover with pickled green mango and chilli oil adding freshness and spice to raw Black Angus fillet. Skewers of rare charcoal-grilled lamb rump amped up with cumin suggest the Italian kitchen has more in common with Uyghur cooks in northwest China than first suspected.

STEV MAKHLOUTA

DELI’S CONTINENTAL

In a former life, the founder of this new-school sandwich shop spent his nights as a hard-working pizzaiolo. Helps explain why many eaters regard Deli’s Continental as a key player in best-conti-roll-in-Perth discussions. (For the benefit of non-West Australians, the conti roll – slang for the continental roll – is Perth’s famous Italian-Australian sandwich made with cold cuts, Italian pickles and a chewy, jaw-testing white roll.

While Deli’s namesake lives up to its not inconsiderable hype, the rest of the sandwich line-up warrants consideration. Start your exploration with the meatball sub: a masterclass in deliciousness as well as flour physics. Just how does that house-baked roll manage to retain its crispness and structural integrity while shouldering the weight of three all-beef meatballs, sugo, salsa verde and melted provolone?

JAMES HIGGS

LULU LA DELIZIA

While this lively osteria is widely regarded as one of Australia’s best pasta joints, not-so-well known is the role played by head chef James Higgs in establishing the legend of Lulu’s. After joining the kitchen in 2017, Higgs gradually ascended the ranks and now upholds chef-patron Joel Valvarosi-Pereza’s vision of Northern Italian deliciousness. (Valvasori-Pereza, meanwhile, has shifted to the role of host and his day-to-day is now more patron than chef.)

While signatures such as plush meatballs, and veal and pork ragu tagliatelle remain essential, Higgs has zero interest in standing still. Check out our man’s orecchiette with prawns sharpened with dried chilli: a recent pasta creation destined for future classic status.

ONES TO WATCH

Like we were saying, things move quickly in these parts and the West Australian dining scene waits for no man (or deadline).

As we go to press, the go-getting Kailis Hospitality Group is putting the final opening touches on Gibney, its ambitious Cottesloe restaurant that’s as notable for its beachfront location as it is the signing of promising young chef James Cole Bowen. A veteran of high-performing kitchens in both Perth (Le Rebelle, Restaurant Amuse) and Melbourne (Omnia, Lume), Cole Bowen is just the man to oversee Gibney’s new-school old-school brasserie menu: think wood-grilled steaks, dazzling fresh seafood, and vitello tonnato sandwiches.

Then there’s Rene Moebius, a German-born chef that recently swapped the heat of far north Queensland for breezy Fremantle. At urban distillery Republic of Fremantle, Moebius turns out cocktail-friendly snacks and share plates of a higher order. Mini wagyu banh mis is the garnish the Negroni never knew it needed while chargrilled ribeye with a duck liver and beef jus is your green-light to play out your deepest three-martini, Mad Men-era steakhouse lunch fantasies.

Rowan Park of Old Young’s Kitchen is another distillery chef showing signs of being a potential leader of the future. Native ingredients sourced and cooked with care are a recurring theme of his menus: think crocodile chorizo dusted with rosella powder. Japanese cooking is another wellspring of inspiration. Beef short rib gets glazed with miso while udon noodles smothered in a glossy blend of kimchi and cream cheese pulses with big after-service chef snack energy.

What’s Good in the Hood

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PERTH

Perth’s eating and drinking scene is more vibrant and diverse than ever, with chefs committing themselves to creating the restaurants diners have always deserved.

Here’s What’s Good in the Perth hood.

BATAVIA CORNER

3/912 Albany Highway, East Victoria
bataviacorner.com

A much-loved fixture of East Victoria Park since 1998, this is the place for the nasi goreng of your dreams, where special fried rice is topped with beef ball slices, and a perfect fried egg. Little puffs of crisp beef lung served alongside green chilli sambal are super moreish and a perfect side snack if you’ve brought a few cold beers with you. Not to mention tender, juicy beef rendang and possibly the most delicious roast peanuts you’re likely to become addicted to.

It’s just a little corner restaurant on the Albany Highway but the heart and soul of this place speaks magnitudes.

YIAMAS

26 Denis Street, Subiaco
yiamasperth.com.au

Here’s a fact about Subiaco, and how it got its name: Benedictine monks settled here in 1851 and built an homage to the Italian town they were originally from. The result is a village-y, neighbourhood mediterranean vibe reflected at the likes of Yiamas – a cute, Levantine-inspired restaurant, where the olive tree-lined courtyard rules the dining area and the chargrill rules the kitchen.

The menu traverses Greek, Turkish and Cypriot cuisines. Mezedes might include sour cherry dolmades, and local, lightly pickled sardines dressed in olive oil. Perhaps it’ll be lamb keftedes, or whatever the chefs have butchered and put on the spit that day. The whole idea is to share, and to graze. Taking over from the popular old Greek mainstay Georges, Michael Roach, Laurence Greenfield and Philip Arnold have created a restaurant that pays homage to the past while looking to the future.

NEXT DOOR

79 Angelo Street, South Perth
nextdoor79.com.au

Ex-Rockpool Bar and Grill chef Elliot Sawiris is serious about steak. In fact, he’s devoted his career to it, here at this woodfire-centric restaurant. It makes perfect sense, really. Next Door is the neighbour and side-project of Olsen’s – one of the city’s most celebrated butcher shops.

Think of Next Door as a temple to meat, and Sawiris its priest, serving communion such as rib eye on the bone, rump and skirt steaks. After something particularly special? The chef also champions the lesser-seen, ultra luxe Denver cut. A tender, flavoursome, heavily marbled cut from the upper portion of the chuck. Rare, rich, delicious.

LULU LA DELIZIA

5/97 Rokeby Road, Subiaco
lululadelizia.com.au

Chef Joel Valvasori is the man behind the plan, but the man behind the pans these days is young chef James Higgs. This is smart, gutsy food, inspired by Valvasori’s Friulano heritage, where pasta is made in-house each day against all odds in the galley kitchen. Tagliatelle is coated in a sticky veal ragu, enriched with red wine and complete comfort in a bowl. Buttery, cheesy polenta is punctuated by chubby meatballs (affectionately referred to on the menu as “nonna’s”).

Other nonna-y touches include the pretty lace curtains in the windows. It’s very similar in vibe to the places you’ll find in the back streets of Florence or Bologna on a little cobbled lane somewhere where people spill out chatting with glasses of wine and don’t leave till the lights go off.

BIG DON’S SMOKED MEATS

bigdons.com.au

Don’t mess with Big Don, or his barbecue. He’s running a shop that looks half like a timber yard in Wisconsin, and partly like an abandoned car factory in Detroit but is, in fact, the most serious barbecue operation in WA.

It’s only open one day a week, you’ll need to bring an Esky with your own beers and a chair to sit on, and you’ll need to order ahead. They often sell out before you can tune in. They’ll also only supply the address once you’ve ordered. This is the barbecue you’ve been waiting for. Make it a priority if you’re in Perth with a free Saturday up your sleeve.

CASA

399 Oxford Street, Mount Hawthorn
casa-casa-casa.com

An ode to a Euro wine bar, plonked in New York City, removed King Kong style, and placed in Mount Hawthorn. All your favourite natural-leaning drops are on hand here, plus plenty you may not have heard of, making this a perfect glass-and-a-plate drop-in centre. And if the plate happens to be the burger, all the better.

Just on that, though, it’s only available one night a week (currently Thursday) for Burger & Burgundy night. The chef responsible for this masterpiece of a bun painted in beef fat, with a wagyu patty, comte cheese, beef fat chips, a pickle and sweet onions is Paul Bentley. Somewhere between French onion soup and a hamburger, it’s a reason to fly to Perth alone.

ETHOS DELI

88 George Street, East Fremantle
ethosdeli.com.au

House-made everything down to the Vegemite scrolls. The ethos behind, um, Ethos is ‘use everything, waste nothing.’ Based on chef Melissa Palinkas’ Eastern European heritage, the little shop on a beautiful, leafy Fremantle street is run by her and wife Susan Whelan.

It’s an ode to the delis of New York, mixed with the beautiful pastry and cured meats of Eastern Europe. Charcuterie is all made in-house, as are the breads, pies, pickles and dips. If you can put it in a jar, chances are it was made here.

The breakfast plate is a must order: A potato latke acts as a mattress for thick slices of peppery pastrami, a frilly sunny side up fried egg, mustard, sauerkraut and dill pickle. Serving suggestion: take a vigorous swim first and work up an appetite.

BREAD IN COMMON

43 Pakenham Street, Fremantle
breadincommon.com.au

There’s nothing common about it, actually. A huge warehouse space that was originally a pharmaceutical factory back in the 1800s with an open kitchen centred around the wood-fired oven, a range of their own condiments for sale as well as a large bar means you could pretty much camp here at lunch and see yourself through to dinner. Especially with fun snacks like the lamb gravy (essentially dipping stew for their house made bread) and the salty, limey, bright and verdant lamb ribs – on the menu from day dot, and for good reason.

Best Practice

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SURF & TURF

Western Australia’s vast size, around 33% of the mainland, extensive 10,000km+ coastline, varied landscapes and diverse climate zones, enable production of a broad range of products. You may think it’s all FIFO, utes and jet skis, but Western Australia boasts 100 million hectares of fine agricultural land, running 12.5 million sheep and lambs, equating to 18% of Australia’s national flock, from 4,280 producers.

It’s a hell of a lot of land girt by sea which got me thinking about that perennial intersection, Surf & Turf. Some say, and I’m one of them, that pairing a good chunk of tender meat with some briny umami in a shell is possibly the best of both worlds.

Hard to pin down where it started but this bit of conspicuous consumption kitsch was invented to extract more coin from the nouveau riche. At its zenith in the 60s, “Surf & Turf”, “Reef & Beef” or “Ship to Shore” could do double duty as the directions for your taxi driver and a menu item. Typically, fillet mignon and lobster back in the day, the plating of strange bed fellows continues to appeal and can be quite delicious when done well.

Some of the classics like “Carpet bag steak” a tenderloin fillet incised through the belly and then stuffed with oysters is a bloody good one. I guess technically, a caviar bump isn’t too far from the concept either.

For this version I have chosen to pair the loin of a young fat lamb with a giant blue yabby indigenous to the South West called marron, some coastal sea blight, and a bit of South Indian influenced French curry. Whilst not technically “surf” (marron is a fresh water crustacean) – some wag coined the name “Smurf & Turf” which seemed apt enough to be worthy of stealing.

LAMB, MARRON & VADOUVAN

Serves 4

Roast Lamb Ingredients

1 Saddle of Lamb on the bone
Large bunch of sea blight
1 tsp Freshly ground Black Pepper
1/4 tsp ground star anise
1tsp Murray River Salt

Method

Remove the red skin from the loin. Cut along the spine on both sides of the vertebrae and follow the bone around to remove each loin. Also remove the tenderloins from the underside. Flatten out the belly flaps so that they will wrap completely around the loin.

Season the loin side with a good amount of salt, pepper and anise. Lay the tenderloin along the loin and layer in a good amount of the sea blight (removing the coarser stalks). Use kitchen string to tie the loin into a tight cylinder.

Season well and then brown well in a pan. You can cook it entirely in the pan, turning from time to time and removing the fat as it collects or place in a 170C oven and cook until the internal temperature is 55c.

Rest for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Serve slices of lamb with the marron tails, some of the cooking butter, fresh sea blight and fried curry leaves.

Vadouvan Spiced Marron Tails Ingredients

4 live marrons (250 grams each)
100g salted butter
4 teaspoons vadouvan spice mix
Salt to taste

Vadouvan Spice Mix
100g ghee
2 stems curry leaves
1 dessert spoon each: whole cumin, fenugreek, yellow mustard seeds, black peppercorns, powdered turmeric
250g brown onions, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Method

Prepare the Marrons

Using a large kitchen knife, cut through the head of each marron between the eyes. Separate head and tail, using a small knife, cut the membrane connecting the head and tail. Twist and pull to separate. Remove the large claws and devein the marron tail with tweezers. Cut down the sides of the tail with kitchen scissors to release the flesh. Blanch claws briefly in boiling water, then peel. Reserve blanched claws and marron tails.

For the Vadouvan Spice Mix

Heat the ghee to just before smoking point and briefly fry curry leaves until translucent, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Roast cumin, fenugreek, mustard seeds, and peppercorns until fragrant. Add turmeric and grind to a fine powder. Fry onions and garlic in ghee until golden then add the ground spices, salt, curry leaves, and cayenne pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Spread the mixture on dehydrator trays lined with plastic wrap and dry at 50°C for 12 hours (or in a low oven until hard and crisp). Grind the dried mixture into a fine powder and store in an airtight container.

Cook the Marron Tails
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add 1/2 teaspoon vadouvan per tail to the foaming butter. Add marron tails, spooning over spiced butter until they just start to curl.

Hot Plates

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Will St. is the first Australian restaurant of chef and restauranteur Will Meyrick who has lived in Indonesia for 20 years and dedicated himself to understanding local food culture and stories across the Asian continent. Meyrick is the chef-owner behind several popular Balinese venues including Mama San, Billy Ho, Honey & Smoke, and Hujan Locale.

Open now for almost three years, Will St. is considered one of Perth’s best Asian restaurants – offering a sensory journey through Asia with a menu of snacks and shares underpinned by regenerative farming practices, heritage crops and the very best Western Australian produce.

Executive chef and business partner Tim Bartholomew says the concept of Will St. leans into the street food culture of Asia, leveraging its recipes as a platform to showcase the best Western Australia has to offer.

“Will St. is a collection of street recipes from across Asia, most of them served with a modern technique that elevates it to this style of setting. We use local produce and a lot of native Australian ingredients on the menu, and it all adds to giving the food our own Will St. twist,” Bartholomew said.

With capacity for 120, the bar and restaurant in Leederville is a sleek space that offers a sense of the Australian landscape as a base to explore a vast array of food stories from across the Asian region.

The goat curry, inspired by Will’s journeys to Calcutta, is one example of how these stories and ingredients come together on the plate – it’s a spicy, hearty dish with its origins firmly in tradition and now also its own Will St. story.

“The Calcutta Goat Nihari is a Pakistani and Indian curry, traditionally eaten for breakfast by Muslims in the city. We use bone in goat leg and cook it down in a rich and fragrant base of spices like cardamon, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and chilli, along with black stone flour, yoghurt and mustard oil.”

“Usually, the dish would include spinach but here we use native warragal greens. It is a comforting and spicy dish, and we serve it with mint, smoked yoghurt, fried shallots, ginger, and lime on the side allowing guests to build their own flavour preferences into it,” Bartholomew said.

Threecoins was opened in Mount Lawley when Fabio and Sabrina Trequattrini relocated from Italy to join their three children who had settled in Perth. The family-friendly neighbourhood trattoria has now been proudly serving the Perth community with classic Italian food, and warm hospitality for over a decade.

Threecoins is the English translation of the Trequattrini family name; the addition of ‘& Sons’ happened in October 2023 when the venue reopened after extensive renovations. It was a logistical decision to streamline the operation of two venues (the family also owns wine bar Testun just down the road), while bringing the best of tradition into a new era via the ‘sons’ – chefs Francesco Trequattrini and Chistopher Caravella, and sommelier Antonio di Senzo.

“Threecoins is my dad Fabio, and the sons are me, Chis, and Antonio. My dad opened Threecoins more than 10 years ago; and me, Chris and Antonio have our rebellious wine bar Testun just down the road. About a year after opening Testun, we joined dad at Threecoins where we went through a big renovation,” Francesco said.

Francesco and Chris are co-head chefs across both venues, bringing a fresh perspective to the Threecoins menu while keeping tradition at its heart. Francesco said is about bringing it into 2024 while keeping its spirit and soul.

“We wanted to do something different and move away from the Neapolitan pizza style and so we now do pinsa. We love pinsa, it’s a crunchy, crispy Roman style of pizza made from a lighter dough. From the restaurant perspective it’s better because guests can order it to start as well as a selection of pastas or mains without getting too full. It’s also fun for us because we take a really cheffy approach to the toppings,” Francesco said.

The lamb ‘scottadito’, the Italian term for burnt fingers, is another example of the venue’s evolution. On the Threecoins menu in some shape or form since day one more than a decade ago, the latest iteration brings together modern techniques with the best Western Australian produce.

“The lamb is probably the one dish with the most history here, we have always had a pistachio and lamb dish going on, I don’t even know how many versions we have done. Currently, it’s a beautiful, simple dish using a premium cut of local Amelia Park lamb, which I think is the best lamb in WA with its big eye muscle and super juiciness.”

“It’s cooked medium rare in the sous vide to give consistency, then quickly chargrilled, and crumbed with pistachio. It’s finished with a bit of Chris’ touch through the agrodolce sauce, a sort of sweet and sour lamb demi glaze,” Francesco said.

It’s a dish of simple perfection and as Francesco prepares it, you can be assured that his father Fabio, who still works in the Threecoins kitchen, has an eagle eye on the proceedings.

Take a perch at Le Rebelle on Beaufort Street in Mount Lawley, and you could almost be anywhere in the world. And that’s just how owners Liam and Sarah Atkinson want you to feel.

“Le Rebelle is a vision that Sarah and I had when we were looking for a space – it is very old-world but at the same time modern. It’s a cozy, comfortable space that you could pick up and move to another city and it would hold up. That’s how we judge our restaurants – venues that you could put down anywhere in the world,” Liam said.

Lucky for WA, “anywhere in the world” happens to be Perth. Born and raised a Perth boy, Liam has been cooking in the West for 27 years, minus a five-year stint in Europe.

“Originally, I was going to move to Sydney or Melbourne, but I decided to stay. We’re never going to have a city of substance if everyone moves away. I wanted to be in Perth doing the same standard of restaurants you find in Sydney or Melbourne.”

“The Perth restaurant scene is strong, way stronger than people understand. We’re a little bit distant but the reality is, the standard is very similar. When you come to a good restaurant in Perth, it will be on par with a great restaurant in Sydney or Melbourne – we just have a lot less of them because we are smaller,” Liam said.

At Le Rebelle that standard is a neighbourhood wine bar and bistro with a generous Euro leaning menu driven by quality produce and precise cooking. Perhaps it is Le Rebelle setting the new standard for the old-world.

Take for example its beef tartare. At Le Rebelle, it’s a modern interpretation of a French classic, inspired by a New York honeymoon dining at the late Anthony Bourdain’s restaurant Les Halles, and Atkinson’s own tartare system.

“I’ve always loved tartare, it’s a chef’s dish that everybody likes – we had Marco Pierre White here and he made everyone order the beef tartare. It’s also a dish that has good memories for me – my boss 20 years ago asked me to develop a beef tartare, so I came up with a system that turned out to be a brilliant recipe and I’ve used it ever since.”

“Our honeymoon in 2013 we ate at Les Halles in New York. They prepared the tartare tableside but served it with frites – the fries being built on top of it was just one of those moments and I knew I wouldn’t be going back to bread or croutons. That’s how to eat tartare, with French fries,” Liam said.

On the Le Rebelle menu, they always use the beef fillet – serving the centre cut as steak and using the tail and chateaubriand ends for the tartare. It means a perfectly portioned steak every time, but no waste. For the tartare, the fillet is hand chopped and finished with pickles, capers, cognac and fresh horseradish, topped with an egg yolk and served with a heaping of hot, crispy frites.

Tasty Meats

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BEEF KEBAB

FALAFEL OMISI | YOKINE

The Omisi journey started with the opening of its first shop in Israel in 1961, before making its way to Australia with the opening of its Melbourne location in 2011, and Perth in 2022.

The 200-year-old falafel recipe, handed down from Yaakov Omisi’s grandmother, originated in Yemen, and has been shared through the generations. The result is punchy, crunchy, bite size balls of bliss.

Omisi partner and chef Maor Mantin expanded the menu of the Perth venue beyond its traditional vegetarian falafel offering with the addition of kebabs, shawarma, and schnitzels.

It is the Beef Kebab in particular, that takes us to a suburban car park alongside a soccer field, attached to a school, on a hot summer’s day in Perth. After several enquiries of ‘are you sure this is it’ and the same response ‘that’s what the map says’ – we locate an unassuming set-up with tables and chairs scattered in the shade overlooking the playing fields.

Maor Mantin greets us with beaming warmth, matching that of the West Australian summer sun – and immediately gets to showing us the process of how his special beef kebabs are made.

“This is my grandparents’ recipe and I remember every time there was a festival or celebration, my grandmother would handmake, one by one, these juicy kebabs made from minced beef shoulder. They were always so juicy, and I said, ok, I need to open a shop and sell that.”

“They’re made from 100 percent beef, onion and parsley. And that’s it, done. No eggs, no pepper, no bread – nothing more. The biggest secret is that’s it’s made with love and passion,” Mantin said.

Hand rolled in the shop daily, the beef kebabs are grilled to order and served in a pita pocket with a choice of middle eastern inspired salads, along with hummus and tahini made fresh daily. Don’t forget a side of chips. And the house made chilli sauces of course.

MEATBALL SUB

DELI’S CONTINENTAL | INGLEWOOD

“Deli’s is your local neighbourhood sandwich joint. Nothing more, nothing less.” That’s what owner Stev Makhouta tells us – although spending time with him, it’s apparent that it is indeed, much more than that.

The unassuming sandwich store on a strip in Inglewood is all about value for money. Everything is meticulously made in house, produce driven and leans on the concept of simple things done right.

“It all started as a pop up out of a pizzeria and with just one sandwich on the menu – the conti roll. And then it just kind of went crazy,” Makhouta said.

Essentially a long crusty roll filled with deli meats, cheese and preserved vegetables, the continental roll is a bit of a thing in Perth. It is said to have been made popular by the Di Cheria brothers who came to Perth from Naples and opened a grocery store in 1953. Like most sandwiches, the roll has many iterations around the world but according to the Di Cheria family, the actual term ‘continental roll’ is exclusive to Western Australia. Affectionately known by Perth locals as the conti roll, it’s where it all began for Deli’s Continental.

Stev Makhouta at Deli’s Continental

“I started making conti rolls out of the pizzeria for about six months and then I did a bunch of pop ups, calling up heaps of chef friends and asking if I could jump into their kitchens to do Deli’s for a day or two,” Makhouta said.

Demand for his conti rolls saw the evolution of the business model and soon enough, Deli’s Continental had a home of its own.
“This place came along, it’s a good space in a great location not too close to any of Perth’s really good sandwich joints. So, I signed the lease, through my hat in the ring and hoped for the best.”

It’s Stev’s interpretation of ‘best’ that makes Deli’s what it is – and the Deli’s bread is one example.

“We have only recently started contracting out our bread and the process took a good six months. Up to three times a week I was there, or they were here, and we would bake together. It seems like something so simple, it’s four ingredients, but it is everything. Even though the sandwiches are full of ingredients, the bread is the one thing that holds everything together.”

“There was always a bigger vision for Deli’s, but it was always dependent on replicating what we do, at the level we do it, consistently. Now, we are getting the exact same bread product that I was previously making by hand. It opens up the doors for different avenues – can we look at a second space, can we look at a third space; whatever it may be,” Makhouta said.

So, what exactly is the Deli’s bread?

“The recipe we have now is almost like a shell, it’s not a dense bread, it’s not a sourdough, it’s nothing like that. It’s like a fluffy cloud in the middle with a really crisp, hard shell on the outside. It’s got a nice nutty, sweet, salty flavour but it let’s everything in between shine. I can’t really explain what it is, I guess it’s just Deli’s.”

It’s no longer just conti rolls on the menu – there’s currently seven rolls on offer and limited time specials from time to time. We’d heard good things about the meatball sub and that’s where we landed.

It all starts with produce and the team worked with their butcher to come up with a special all beef blend just for Deli’s. From there, it’s classic Italian meatball style with eggs, milk, parmesan, parsley and breadcrumbs (their own of course).

“We weigh them out at about 90 grams each and there are three per sub. They are blasted in a super-hot oven and then steeped in sugo for a day – then they’re good to go. Into our bread, with some locally sourced provolone cheese and parmesan, and a tangy salsa verde, high on the acidity scale, to balance out the richness.”

“It’s super simple but we just try and treat everything with respect and do it the right way. You’re going to need a nap after you eat it, but that’s what you want. It’s messy, but we want you to make a mess, it’s part of the experience,” Makouta said.

AROSSTICINI

MONSTERELLA | WEMBLEY

Tania Nicolo and Ryan Bookless run one of Western Australia’s, if not the county’s, best neighbourhood pizza joints. It’s an ode to everything a local pizzeria should be, and more.

The specialty here is handmade wood-fired pizza, naturally risen for 48 hours. It’s authentic Italian – as interpreted by the food Tania grew up eating amongst her Italian family in suburban Perth.

It’s a real family affair – from Tania’s grandmother handmaking the restaurants’ pasta daily, to the colouring-in menus and textas for kids, and the walls adorned with cute sketches of cartoon pizzas, unicorns, and monsters. Then there’s the story of how Monsterella got its name.

“Growing up around a lot of pizza, the youngest little monster (their daughter Mila) decided that all cheese was mozzarella. However, when she asked for it, it was monsterella.”

“We had been in pizza shops before via different partnerships, but I always had the idea of wanting to do mum’s homemade pasta, sauces and arossticini. We found a site – two years after Mila pronounced mozzarella “Monsterella” – and Monsterella was born,” Nicolo said.

It’s a warm and buzzing space – and by 4.30pm on a Tuesday when we visit, it’s already starting to fill up. When we bite into a piping hot pizza straight from the wood-fire oven, it’s easy to see why. But more than the perfect pie, it’s Monsterella’s sense of family that makes it feel like home. The raucous laughter rolling out of the venue as we poke our heads in before service points to exactly the type of place it is.

“We’re in a neighbourhood that’s five minutes to the beach and 10 minutes to the city. It’s a great inner-city neighbourhood and both Ryan and I grew up around this area. My family on my mum’s side made their mark as market gardeners in Wembley, literally just down the end of the street,” Nicolo said.

A staple of the Monsterella menu since day one (eight years ago now), arossticini are today popping up on more and more menus around the country. And rightly so, these delicate smoky morsels of juicy lamb skewered on a stick are nothing short of delicious.

“Our arossticini are very popular and have been from the start. We probably go through about a thousand a week. In Abruzzo, where my family are from, they traditionally use mutton so when my uncle makes them, he layers mutton and fat, mutton and fat. We are lucky here to have access to beautiful local lamb and so for ours we use lamb shoulder,” Nicolo said.

Lamb shoulder is butchered in-house and flattened to an even thickness. It is then layered into a machine called a spiedini, a cube shaped box with skewer holes at the bottom and long slots on each side. Fatty and lean pieces of lamb are layered evenly throughout until they reach the top. A lid with skewer holes is then attached and skewers inserted top to bottom through the lamb. A long knife then cuts through the lamb via the slots on the side, in both directions. The top is then removed and there you have your arossticini – 250 per batch.

“The arossticini are simply grilled with olive oil and finished with salt, pepper and parsley. They’re a delicious and versatile menu item, perfect shared before pizzas or simply enjoyed on their own with a couple of other sides. There’s a reason they’ve been on since day one,” Nicolo said.

Big Business

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In this section, we explore some of the country’s biggest foodservice operators – plating up thousands of meals every day from the seas to the skies and everywhere in between.

THERE’S
NO
PLACE
LIKE
DOME

If you’re Western Australian or have spent time in our beautiful Western state, you might be familiar with Dôme – the chain of local cafes often set within incredible heritage buildings. From old council buildings to retired police stations, Dôme’s commitment to local heritage has seen the restoration of many buildings into buzzing community hubs.

Dôme Midland – one of the 56 Dome locations in WA

Head of Product Development and Marketing David Hahn said Dôme originally started with coffee and cake but has evolved to a café model with the locations and environment lending itself to longer dwell times.

“Dôme started in the late eighties when the original owner returned from a back packing tour of Europe, inspired by its coffee houses. She started the first one in Cottesloe and since then it has grown to a network of 56 stores throughout Western Australia.”

“Here at Dôme it’s all about a sense of place and space, we build nice big cafes where people have time to sit and take a moment out of their busy days. From group gatherings to individuals working on laptops, it’s a long dwell time, and food now makes up a vast majority of our total revenue.”

“We work with local suppliers wherever possible, and particularly when it comes to things like meat and smallgoods. Our beef is from Western Australia, some of our jams and chutneys are made by a lady in Fremantle – we really like to foster that sense of community spirit that we are all in this together for a common result,” Hahn said.

The menu has been designed to have various day parts with breakfast making up a large component and more substantial, homestyle, rustic meals available on an all-day basis. Dôme Kitchen Coach Owen Parsons said it’s about designing a menu that keeps people coming back.

Dôme’s Signature Steak Sandwich with rost biff, cos lettuce, roast capsicum, tomatoes, caramelised onion on a rustic style ciabatta bun

“We pride ourselves on making sure we give value, abundance, and flavour above anything else. That’s our ethos around the menu, wholesome, homely, and substantial – meals people keep coming back for,” Parsons said.

The Dome Steak Sandwich demonstrates the group’s drive to ensure these customer commitments are met and the group invested a lot of time to get it right – with 56 venues, consistency plays a huge role.

“Previously we were using topside for the steak sandwich and were struggling with inconsistencies in size and cooking methods to get it right. We started going down the sous-vide path because we wanted to make it uniform across the business and provide a consistently good product to our clientele.”

“We started off using a sous-vide scotch fillet and as much as it is a brilliant cut of meat, we were having some issues with portion size and consistency – plus beef prices at the time also meant it was becoming an expensive product,” Parsons said.