Australian_Gourmet_Traveller_May_2017

68 GOURMETTRAVELLER.COM.AU

Bar & Grill versus a Saké Jr. Pash’s first job,
at 15, was in a Tex-Mex restaurant in Texas
as “dishie, server and whatever else”, and he
remains passionate about hospitality.
Among other things, Pash was president of
hospitality operations for a global real-estate
investment trust managing a $2 billion
portfolio including 40 hotels and resorts and
more than 70 restaurants. He’s fond of
talking about good food and service as the
ultimate experiential asset. Paraphrasing
Perry, Pash declares that dining is the new
black for everyone from Instagramming
millennials to golf-weary baby boomers.
And they certainly agree that Australian
culinary trends are moving away from the
white-tablecloth sector. The pizza and pasta
space is thriving worldwide, while the
booming premium-casual and fast-casual
sector – an area Pash is evangelical about in
terms of its commercial merits – shows no
sign of flagging.
This, Pash says, is why he has faith in
the largely untapped goldmine that is the
Australian restaurant sector, steep fixed costs

witness Singapore-based company Golden

Development Private Limited buying 65 per

cent of Melbourne chef Shannon Bennett’s

Vue Group in November 2016 for a reported

$22.5 million.

The trends in the market are bullish,

says Pash, and his company has the kind

of strong brands best placed to make the

most of it.

Perry has been keen to plant the flag

overseas for some years now, and global

expansion was a key incentive for him in the

deal. Pash says the group is already fielding

leasing offers for a Rockpool Bar & Grill and

Saké in Los Angeles. If LA worksout, the

next stage will include another Bar & Grill

and Sake in London along with a Spice

Temple in New York.

The Big Apple is an untapped market for

great Asian food, Perry reckons. “They’ve

got Spice Market, Buddakan – those sorts

of places are doing $20 million a year and to

be quite frank, they’re pretty ordinary.”

Perry says his value to the brand, beyond

his experience and reputation, is in his ability

Fine dining may be tricky but Australia is on the cusp

of anotherfood revolution.

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Projects in the pipeline

for Rockpool Dining Group.

AUTUMN 2017

Burger Project,

Broadway, Sydney

JUNE 2017

Jade Temple, Sydney

The Bavarian,

Chermside, Brisbane

AUGUST 2017

Rosetta, Sydney

The Bavarian, Knox,

Melbourne

LATE 2017

Munich Brauhaus,

South Bank, Brisbane

Two restaurants at

Darling Harbour

2018

Rockpool Bar & Grill,

Brisbane

Spice Temple, Brisbane

and all. He says he immediately saw the huge
potential to create Australia’s first big dining
group – a multi-restaurant platform model
thriving in the US and Europe – when he
was brought in by Urban Purveyor Group
founder John Szangolies at the end of 2014
to whip the group into shape in preparation
for its sale. Quadrant Private Equity liked his
vision and backed UPG. Szangolies left, and
Pash became chief executive – almost to his
surprise, as he tells it.
Fine dining may be tricky but Australia
is on the cusp of another food revolution,
he says. Changing demographics and
urbanisation mean that Australia is following
trends in the US where more relaxed dining
spaces with an emphasis on good, fresh food
are booming.
“In Australia, I think per capita dining
will pass grocery spend in the next couple
of years,” says Pash. “There’s definitely a
dining revolution going on. In New South
Wales, probably 10,000 new seats have
come online.” The delivery sector is also
booming here as it is in the US.
It’s the reason, he says, that big business
is increasingly investing in the sector –

to drive quality and innovation and manage

costs both in food and staffing. “That’s going

to manifest itself in the restaurants being

busy and sustainable and having a long life.”

And making them profitable, of course.

“If we aren’t making money, we can’t invest

in the other things – we can’t talk about

sustainability or great quality unless we

can afford to invest in them.”

He has already created new menus

• “about 14 new dishes at Saké already and
  more coming... what we’ve tried to do is take
  out the kind of Nobu-esque dishes” – with a
  roster of new plates based on “really beautiful
  ingredients”. Eleven Bridge will reopen as
  part of the group in June as Jade Temple,
  an upmarket Cantonese sister restaurant to
  Spice Temple.
  Perry says he remains committed to
  “staying on and growing the business and
  taking it to a public company”, while Pash
  is applying for his permanent residency
  and aims to make Australia home for the
  next five to 10 years. As Perry tells it,
  Quadrant’s English head, Chris Hadley,
  is also committed for the long term. “He
  said, ‘if I’m famous for being the guy who

killed Rockpool, I’m going to have to move

out of Sydney’.”

Perry has his eye firmly fixed on legacies.

“When this company becomes public, we’re

interested in finding the next Tom Pash and

Neil Perry.” In 10 years’ time, he says, he

wants to have created a sustainable, solid

company with management and staff all

working towards the same quality-driven

goals. “I don’t see why one day we won’t

be celebrating Rockpool Dining Group’s

100th birthday.”#