March 2003
On the Waterfront - Dining out in Sydney in the New Millennium
by Sheridan Rogers
Sydney is renowned as one of the world's most seductive harbour cities,yet it's only over the past decade that up-market dining venues have appeared around its foreshores. Before Australia's Bicentennial year in 1988, the old convict settlement boasted only a few waterside fish-and-chipperies offering tables and plastic chairs outside. Seemingly unaware of European traditions since the 17th century, Australian councils previously forbade restaurateurs from placing tables and chairs on public walkways.
Archaic liquor licensing laws also discouraged casual dining at indoor-outdoor restaurants, while encouraging rowdy hotel 'garden bars' to serve standard Aussie fare like steaks, chops and sausages . Also, unlike most European cities, Sydneysiders did not live in the city, but in leafy suburbs around it. Several factors helped to change this regrettable situation. Most importantly, affordable airfares caused an explosion of international travel in the 1980s, which worked two ways for Australia's hospitality industry. First, many more Australians, including restaurateurs and their customers, could more frequently investigate the diverse and urbane outdoor dining habits of Europe and Asia and would bring back ideas to copy at home. At the same time, many more foreigners especially the Japanese, Americans and Europeans began coming to Australia, with many literally falling in love with its harbour and relaxed, multi-cultural atmosphere.
In 1988, the Bicentennial (a 200 year celebration of the arrival of Captain Cook and the British in Australia) triggered the development of a new waterfront leisure zone called Darling Harbour. Despite protests from local residents, this flashy development on the western side of the city, about a kilometre from the Sydney Town Hall, breathed life into a run-down former industrial area and showed Sydneysiders that outdoor dining could be a real bonus, adding both to their enjoyment of the harbour and attracting tourists in droves.
The development of inner city apartments also encouraged people to live in the city, leading to a burst of well-designed little coffee shops, tucked away in interesting available spaces. Around the same time, Rockpool - Sydney's first designer restaurant - came onto the scene. A trio of Kings Cross designers called D4 Design (Bill MacMahon, Stephen Roberts and Michael Scott-Mitchell) delivered a seductive and incredibly luxurious fit-out for $1.3 million and put forth the notion, new to Sydney, that a restaurant could seek to become a long term classic institution. Inspired by Philippe Starck's neo-1930's art deco style and up- dated for the post-modern period, Rockpool's durable idiosyncratic decor has stood the test of time - as has owner/chef Neil Perry's adventurous Asian-influenced cuisine.
Before the advent of Rockpool, Sydney restaurants had really just been decorated. While good designers like George Freedman and Neville Marsh had made an impact, they didn't kick off a trend. It took a revolution in the Australian food and wine scene during the 1980's for designer fit-outs to really take off. Since then influential designers have included Burley Katon Halliday (Sailor Thai, The Summit, Box) and McConnell Rayner Architects (Banc and Wine Banc in Martin Place and The Bather's Pavilion, Balmoral). Architect and designer Luigi Rosselli also put his European stamp on a number of important restaurants during this period, including the bistro La Mensa in Paddington (1996), the "theatrical" belmondo in The Rocks (1996), and Pier Function Room at Rose Bay (1997).
Now at the beginning of the second millennium, there are a number of gleaming white rooms which sit like a necklace around the harbour stretching between the Harbour Bridge around to Middle Harbour at The Spit. Minimalist in design, they almost disappear to let the harbour in, seducing you to partake of the city's hedonistic, bright, breezy lifestyle and include Catalina and Pier at Rose Bay, Cruise Bar and Restaurant and The Park Hyatt's harbour kitchen&bar at Circular Quay, Aqua Dining at North Sydney, Bather's Pavilion, Watermark and Awaba at Balmoral, Orso and Fresh Ketch at The Spit.
One of the first of these was Awaba cafe at Balmoral situated 5 - 6 kilometres north of the city on Middle Harbour. Designed by Mark Landini, creative director of Landini Associates, it set a new standard for Sydney cafes when it was refurbished in the mid-1990's. "Responding to its breezy beachside location, we designed Awaba to capture light and views by allowing open air access to the foreshore and the spectacle of Middle Harbour," says Landini.
Patrons enjoy wall-free dining as concertina aluminium framed doors fold back along the two beachside facades. A wall length mirror above the banquettes ensures those who don't face the beach enjoy the same view. Funnily enough, people now take photos of the mirror, mistaking it for the actual view! A recessed, cast concrete bar and take-away servery runs through the restaurant acting both as a 'funnel' for service staff and a visual barrier to the road and take away trade.
To enhance views both inside and outside the cafe, careful manipulation of natural and artificial light was a crucial design consideration. By day, a reflective white gloss painted ceiling enhances the cafe's sense of airiness. By night, up lights recessed into the mirrored wall and under the banquette illuminate the space. The rear light-wall doubles as a giant menu while dividing the restaurant from the kitchen. At night the light wall acts as an important substitute for the view.
Since Awaba, Landini has successfully used mirrors in a number of different venues - Cruise Restaurant at Circular Quay, Zaafran in Darling Harbour, and Botanic Gardens Restaurant & Kiosk in the Botanic Gardens. "I use mirrors to suck in the view, to expand the space and to capture the light. At Awaba, Zaaffran and Cruise Restaurant they reflect the sparkling harbour." Landini, former creative director of the Conran Design Group, London, is a fan of the work of British minimalist architect David Chipperfield. His underlying philosophy is to create simple things which last.
At Cruise Bar, a stone's throw from the water's edge at Circular Quay, the sleek, airy interior of the street-level bar takes full advantage of its dress circle positioning with an expansive outdoor promenade at the southern end of the Overseas Passenger Terminal. White terrazzo floors and walls of white polyurethane and mirrored panelling enhance the light-filled interior - and if that (along with the cocktails!) doesn't go straight to your head, the long multicolored light wall facing the harbour will - that's if it hasn't turned your complexion green first! Conceived by British visual artist Jeremy Lord, this is the world's largest light wall (13m x 3m) with every cell (1.2m x 40cm) constantly changing colour as it responds to the sound and movement in the room.
Above Cruise Bar, is Cruise restaurant, where Landini has again used mirrors, and on the top level is the sleek, subdued Posh Bar.
NOTE: To be continued next month... This is an extract from Architectural Design Vol 72, No 6 Nov/Dec Copyright @ 2002 entitled "Architecture & Food", guest-edited by Karen A Franck (published by Wiley-Academy, a division of John Wiley & Sons Ltd, U.K.)
