April 2003
On the Waterfront - Dining out in Sydney in the New Millennium
Just along from Cruise Bar is Bambu, another innovative restaurant-bar addition to the Passenger Terminal on the Circular Quay foreshore. According to architect and interior designer Misho, one of the stipulations made by the Department of Public Works was that the vista from the street through to the Opera House opposite not be impinged on.
"It was a daunting cold space to work with," he said. "So we created a huge sculptural form over the ceiling and along the side wall to give the feeling of being embraced by an organic form. This allowed me to play around with the light and it also acted as an acoustic baffle."
The sculpture was constructed using laminated white cardboard panel, an unconventional building material, and is the first of its kind implemented in a commercial situation anywhere in the world. Misho has deliberately kept the interior fit-out subdued in order to provide contrast to the flowing sculpture.
Charcoal brown chairs and banquettes, dark polished floorboards and a deep purple-maroon colour scheme on the mezzanine bar level create a warm dining and lounging experience. Executive chef Xavier Mouche has put together a tantalising menu incorporating dishes from the Mediterranean, Asia, The Land and The Sea. Each one is available as an entree, encouraging you to graze your way through the menu.
Not far from the Passenger Terminal and set well back from the ferry terminals behind the ugly Cahill Expressway is the historic Customs House at the top of which is Cafe Sydney. Given the hole in the centre around which it sits, the interior design by John Morford (Morford and Associates, Hong Kong) is stunning.
Most thought it wouldn't work but it's hot to trot. East of the Customs House and stretching right up to the entrance of the Opera House is a long colonnade along which sit a number of elegant bars and restaurants. Most of these were completed just prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. They include the ECQ Bar - a glass box which hovers in mid air over the ferry terminals; the Quayside Brasserie, Aqualuna Bar and Restaurant, Eastbank cafe/bar/restaurant, Cadmus and Aria.
Suspended between Cadmus and the tenth floor of the luxurious apartment blocks above the Colonnade is the Bridge Bar. Perhaps even more than its unique construction, the Bridge Bar is celebrated for the extraordinary views on eye-level with the Harbour Bridge and overlooking the bustle of the harbour, Circular Quay and the sunset to the west, and the Opera House, Botanical Gardens and more harbour as far as the Heads to the east.
Whilst the Colonnade works well spatially, it terminates rather dismally - and the columns themselves are of questionable design. At the end of the colonnade is the Opera House, the iconic sculptural building conceived by Danish architect Joern Utzon in the late 1950's. Situated on a concrete podium, which juts out over the water, sit three sets of concrete shells, the smallest of which houses the main restaurant, now called Guillaume at Bennelong.
The eye-catching shells, which are clad with small white tiles (some reflective, some matte) reflect and contribute to the ever-changing interplay of light, water, ships, ferries and yachts on the harbour. Due to political opposition, Utzon's original interior designs were scrapped. A number of architects and designers have subsequently worked on the interior of Bennelong, the most recent of whom is Dale Jones-Evans.
"When we took it on, it had the grand gesture of the shell but I felt the space was lacking warmth and intimacy. We wanted to highlight the scale of the existing shell so we spent money re-lighting it and making the ground plain more intimate," he says. "We re-textured all the furniture and put new fabric on the swan chairs. And we also re-surfaced the tables in timber - previously they were white."
Jones-Evans employed Barbara Weir, an Aboriginal artist from Utopia (Central Desert, Northern Territory) to paint the large cylinder lights, the small candle lights on the tables and the bar lights in her "sea-grass dreaming" pattern. "They throw a warm orange glow which makes the space more intimate," he adds. In the centre are eight Aboriginal memorial poles.
Theatrical in design, they hit your eye as soon as you enter. The money for these was lent by the Opera House Trust, the idea being that will represent the first significant Aboriginal art collection in the Opera House.
Further east around the harbour on the other side of the Botanic Gardens is The Finger Wharf, Woolloomoolloo, or "the Loo" as Sydneysiders affectionately call it, about a kilometre or two from CBD. It was here at the end of the 19th century that fishermen laid out their catches on the flagged floors of the foreshore and where, during the 20th century, thousands of Australian soldiers boarded ships bound for the Great Wars in Europe and the Middle East. Despite efforts by the South Sydney Council to smarten up the surrounding area, it retains a rough-and-tumble maritime vitality that takes in the Australian Navy at one end and the Botanical Gardens at the other. In the middle is the Finger Wharf, a spectacularly long construction built in 1910 by the Sydney Maritime Trust during a period of expanding wool, wheat and import trading.
The largest extant timber pile wharf in the world, it is a rare surviving example of Federation architecture applied to a major industrial structure. Since its refurbishment during the late 1990s, it has become a fine example of heritage working with urban development - fabulous architecturally and a huge asset to the area. It now houses the W Hotel, a huge interior space which at one time led it to be nicknamed the "Cathedral of Commerce", and a string of private apartments. Most spectacular is the harbourside boardwalk or promenade. To stroll along here on a sunny day is something of an eye-opener for this is where sophisticated European outdoor dining meets Sydney's swanky lifestyle head-on.
There are a number of dining establishments on the Finger Wharf, not counting those in the W Hotel, and they include Otto Ristorante Italiano, Nove Pizzeria and Pasta Bar, Manta Ray Seafood Restaurant and Oyster Bar, Shimbashi Soba Noodle Bar, Kingsley's Steak and Crab House and a bakery/patisserie and cafe by French bakery specialist Laurent Boillon. Otto or "Spotto" as some social columnists now call it, is the darling of the group.
"I was invited to look at this space just over two and a half years ago when there were still cranes on the wharf," says owner Maurizio Terzini. "A lot of restaurateurs knocked it back. It was a sunny day and I remember being outside and feeling a sense of tranquillity. It had everything I wanted - intimate views, calm water, close to the city. And I liked the fact that Woolloomooloo was still relatively unexplored."
Unlike many of the other new restaurants around the harbour, Otto's has more of a European bistro feel, due to its Melbourne stamp. One of his biggest challenges was to make the room work in both summer and winter. "In winter it becomes small, dark and intimate, rather like Caffe e Cucina in Melbourne. When we close the doors, there's a real bistro feel," he says. Dark polished floorboards, Thonet chairs, crisp white tablecloths and scattered photos and paintings on the walls give it a classic bistro look. Wine racks over the bar, cream banquettes along the back wall and a blackboard alongside the open kitchen contribute to this effect.
In summer when the doors are flung wide open, the majority of patrons sit outside on pale yellow Philippe Starck plastic chairs. "I don't like outdoor chairs but these keep the space linear and clean - they're lightweight, plastic and stackable" says Terzini. "A lot of the atmosphere comes from the people. We offer a European intimacy which people respond to - and I think it proves a restaurant doesn't have to be the most stylish around to be a success. I like my restaurants to be community driven, to suit the local way of life; where the feeling and food are accessible and people can come to eat not dine. Otto's food is not the kind of food my mother would cook, but she would certainly recognise the flavours," says Terzini.
Next door at Nove Pizzeria and Pasta Bar, an informal atmosphere reigns. Here, children are welcome. Concrete floors, shiny red and green glass on the stairs leading to the mezzanine, a big communal table inside and bright orange Philippe Starck chairs outside lend a cheerful family atmosphere. Large white bowls of tomatoes and oranges add to the effect.
