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GOURMET TRAVELLER 55

Hartsyard 2.0 rifs on its previous form,

but with a lighter, more up-tempo

rhythm, writesPAT NOURSE.

“H

ave we ordered

a meal entirely

of crackers and

dip?” asks my pal.

Whoops. Didn’t Cher’s character

inMermaidsmake dinners entirely

from canapés? Clearly a woman

ahead of her time. But Hartsyard’s

offerings aren’t hors d’oeuvre dainty

• they’re robust things full of
  flavour. This is what they do here.
  Cheddar puffs are crunchier
  and less ephemeral than the name
  might imply, more like savoury
  crostoli, powdered with what
  our waitress calls Reuben spice,
  dotted with rounds of kohlrabi
  and served with an airy dollop
  of Dijon mustard.

Above: scampi

and prawn

tartare with

salt and vinegar

chips. Above

right, from

left: co-owners

Naomi Hart

and Gregory

Llewellyn with

head chef

Jarrod Walsh.

Brewery bread, two dense,

toast-brown pucks made with

spent grain from the beardy beer

guys at Young Henry’s down the

road, comes with a large clot

of cultured butter, splashed in

turn with an oil flavoured with

the French curry-spice blend

vadouvan. Is $11 expensive for

bread? Maybe. But it seems just

about right for oiled butter.

This is Hartsyard 2.0. The

hardware is much the same –

boiler-room glam, the tables

nude, the chairs metal, the marble

bar complemented by Edison bulbs

and shelves crafted from pipe – and

the buzzy, neighbourhoody vibe

has deepened since it opened back

in 2012. But the software has been

updated, putting the focus more

on fish and vegetables.

The best example of this new

approach is wedges of a beefsteaky

raw tomato with bits of barbecued

calamari, small leaves of basil and

a whipped-sesame sauce. The play

Harts

beat

PHOTOGRAPHY ROB SHAW

of give and resistance between

the two lead ingredients, plus

the shattery crunch brought

by bugak, Korean-style chips of

seaweed coated in glutinous-rice

flour, make it a pleasure to eat.

If the tomatoeswere top-shelf,

it’d be a table-thumper.

The food is definitely lighter.

This is of course a relative concept

in a restaurant that made its

name saucing buttermilk fried

chicken with sausage gravy, topping

poutine with short ribs and putting

bacon in the Manhattans.

Now the fried chicken has

moved up the street to Wish Bone,

the new eatery that Hartsyard’s

owners, manager Naomi Hart

and chef Gregory Llewellyn, have

fashioned from what used to be

their bar, The Gretz. The bull-in-a-

lolly-shop desserts that were once a

feature, meanwhile, have followed

former pastry chef Andrew Bowden

a couple of blocks up Enmore Road

to his new café, Saga.

Sydney review