I’ve just been invited to the birthday party of a two-year-old and would ordinarily expect balloons, cupcakes and maybe a bubble machine. Instead, I’ll probably get blue swimmer crab croquettes, salmon en croute and champagne because the two-year-old happens to be a restaurant. Given the dynamic nature of the hospitality sector, a two-year anniversary is definitely worth a party; there’s something poignant about going into your third year with a defiant “We made it!” fist-pump.
Let’s not forget, however, those who’ve survived multiple decades and are still going strong. They were our pioneers. There was no luxury country house with an ambitious dining room when Alla and Allan Wolf-Tasker opened Lake House in Daylesford 40 years ago.
No Cantonese restaurant as elegant and wine-driven as Melbourne’s Flower Drum almost 50 years ago. And no restaurant design that sits as lightly on a river bank in the Australian bush as Glenn Murcutt’s Berowra Waters Inn , built for Gay and Tony Bilson 50 years ago (now run by chef Brian Geraghty). 25 of Melbourne’s most iconic restaurants to tick off your bucket list 20 of Sydney’s most iconic restaurants to tick off your bucket list It’s been quite the year for special birthdays, so crack open the champagne (they certainly did) for Sydney’s harbourside Catalina (30 years), Abhi’s Indian restaurant in North Strathfield (35), Pilu at Freshwater (20), Sails on Lavender Bay (48), Bistro Moncur (31), Sean’s Panaroma (31.
