Maison Batard was never meant to be this big. In 2018, when livewire restaurateur Chris Lucas took over a slim, split-level Victorian terrace at the top end of Bourke Street , he envisaged a little French bistro and wine bar. Fast forward six years and it’s snowballed into the flagship of Lucas’ eponymous restaurant group, which includes the two-hatted Society , Grill Americano and Chin Chin, as well as the recently opened Tombo Den and Carlotta in Canberra.
As Lucas acquired and amalgamated two additional historical buildings – to the right and behind the original – Maison Batard burgeoned into a once-in-a-career restaurant. It will finally open on November 26. “This, as it’s turned out, is a legacy project,” Lucas says.
“There’s not another one of these in me ...
so I’ve given it everything I’ve got.” COVID wrought havoc on the restaurant industry, but it did give Lucas one gift: time. To refine, to reorient, “to think about what’s possible, rather than what’s probable”.
Then, to lead his team on a hedonistic research romp through Paris: 27 venues in five days. Now spanning four storeys – with two restaurant levels, a rooftop terrace that feels like that of a five-star hotel and a slinky subterranean supper club – Maison Batard is Lucas’ most involved undertaking yet. But it also feels like his most intimate.
As a lifelong Francophile, Lucas’ extensive travels through France are built into the DNA of Maison Batard, from the overall co.
