he first time the heating
came on in the Henry Jones
Art Hotel, the walls started
to bleed. A thick red liquid
dripped down the sandstone
and brick. Guests were terri-
ff weren’t surprised. See, for a
century, the string of warehouses that now
comprise Henry Jones Art Hotel were home
to the IXL Jams factory. The buildings
remained abandoned for nearly 30 years
until 2004, when they were sold, joined,
scrubbed, polished and turned into a boutique hotel named for
Jones, the owner of IXL. When the heaters were cranked up on
that first wintry night, the 100-year-old crystallised jam residue
melted, running down the walls in strawberry-red globs.
Our host may have just used science to prove the hotel I am
about to sleep in isn’t haunted, but I’m not so sure. This place
contains so much history it is almost palpable: a warehouse and
red-light tavern for whalers and fishermen; a jam factory; a derelict
squatters’ haven; an abandoned playground and studio space for
the arts students next door; a 52-room, four-suite boutique hotel.
Convicts laid the sandstone you rush past in the hallways; they
elevated, without machinery, the steel beam that runs the length of
the building. The landowner and jam factory founder, George
Peacock, who hired convicts in order to give them life skills rather
than punishment, lived in what is now the Peacock Terrace with
his wife, Margaret, and seven children; the rickety spiral staircase
(Tasmania’s oldest) they used to access the floor below is visible
behind glass, and a patch of their wallpaper has been preserved in
the main bedroom. A grand staircase made from local blackwood
leads to the spectacular H. Jones Suite, which is now sought after
by honeymooners but was once the stately boardroom where Jones
would bring clients to intimidate and terrorise them.
Everywhere you look, there is evidence of the warehouses’
previous lives, but this hotel is by no means run down — the
Federal Group (the team that also parents the MACq 01 and Saffire
Freycinet) brought on architect Robert Morris-Nunn to carefully
preserve the factory while adding the most modern of features:
think overflowing infinity spas in living rooms, huge televisions,
glass-walled bathrooms and king-sized beds draped with silk covers.
The result is the first dedicated art hotel in the southern hemi-
sphere, which has a collection of some 500 artworks by emerging
and established Tasmanian artists adorning the walls. (A word to
the wise: make time for an art
and history tour of the hotel,
a glass of champagne in hand,
with art liaison Emine Lewis
and history liaison Greg Ball.)
In the nation’s new food
capital (sorry, Melbourne),
there are seemingly a million
hole-in-the-wall, bespoke, arti-
sanal, farm-to-table options,
but within the confinesof the
Henry Jones you’ll find some
of the best food Tasmania has
to offer. As part of the $1.7
million upgrade to the hotel’s
rooms, two restaurants have
been introduced.
Cocktail hour kicks off
with live jazz in the IXL Long
Bar. While the pianist tinkles the ivories, get
acquainted with the drinks menu: here you’ll
find one of the largest collections of
Tasmanian whisky and gin in the state,
whisked, shaken and stirred by head bartender
Ash Turner, whose cocktails are garnished
with produce from the hotel’s herb garden.
When your inner dinner-bell chimes, mosey
over to Peacock and Jones, a cavelike dwelling
tucked into the corner of the hotel’s impres-
sive atrium. Those who love the spectacle of
cooking are in for a good show thanks to the
restaurant’s open kitchen, while architecture and history buffs will
relish the convict-carved sandstone walls and exposed rough-hewn
timber beams. Head chef Jeff Workman, of Saffire Freycinet fame,
crafts an ever-changing à la carte menu featuring locally sourced
meat and seafood, and veggies from the garden. Within the pages
of your hide-bound menu, you’ll find dishes such as lamb shoulder
with pumpkin, pepitas and nutmeg; crispy school prawns with
squid ink aioli; and grilled wallaby, suet pudding and roasted
eschalot, served on earth-toned tableware.
Night two is reserved for Landscape Restaurant & Grill, a
moodier destination with a collection of colonial-era John Glover
paintings. The menu of reimagined classics — instead of steak and
fries, think Cape Grim sirloin and duck-fat chips — is by executive
chef Alex Katsman and made on the powerhouse asado grill, where
whisky barrels are fired to add to the smoky flavours. (The restau-
rant goes through 15–20 tonnes of whisky-infused wood every
year, which shows how well the local industry is doing.) In-house
sommelier Louis Kesur has curated the perfect wine-pairing menu.
Filling the hours between dinners with more delicious food is
easy in Hobart, especially on a Pennicott Wilderness Journeys
Seafood Seduction cruise: a full-day gourmet outing that launches
from Constitution Dock (a short walk from the Henry Jones) and
travels down the River Derwent. We anchor in a sheltered cove
near Bruny Island and indulge in a 10am glass of chilled Jansz
while one of the divers gears up to fetch lunch. Yes, while we watch
the morning sunlight scatter over the water, our diver is below the
surface collecting oysters, abalone and crayfish. He shucks and
cooks the seafood as we toast with another glass of wine. And then
we eat. For hours, we eat. It is glorious, but be warned: after this
cruise, nothing else will ever taste fresh again. In fact, after a
Tasmanian culinary sojourn, nothing ever tastes quite the same.
thehenryjones.com; seafoodseduction.com.auA
R
TFU
L L O D G E RThe H. Jones Suite
at Henry Jones Art
Hotel, Hobart.
Hobart’s haven of art
and history the HenryJones Art Hotel has
upped its luxe factor— and opened two of
the city’s most hypeddining concepts to boot.
ByALEXANDRAENGLISH