Story & photos Matthew Michaelis
A lasting mémoire
After six-and-a-half years of fabulous menus and a steady and generous culinary contribution to our region, La Table Cafe and Restaurant is coming to the end in its present form – the Mullumbimby premises.
Louise and Bruno Pouget’s La Table Cafe and Restaurant has provided the ardent local foodie with an experience: French culture, food, wine and joie de vivre in the heart of Mullumbimby.
Unfortunately, everything changes, or so history and philosophers will tell you. Personally, if it were up to me, all good eateries would never change – c’est la vie.
‘We’ve operated La Table Cafe and Restaurant since November 2008; that’s six-and-a-half years’, says Louise.
‘La Table was the first restaurant in our region to have been listed in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Top 10 Sustainable Restaurants in NSW.
‘La Table was also (the first and only in Mullumbimby) recommended and reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Good Food Guide’ over the years. We were also the first cafe in the region to serve organic coffee and organic milk – from day one till close.
‘Our reputation has always been, and will always be, based on our quality and professionalism
Last dinners – last orders
Of course, good things should always go out with a bang, and the final or, (dare I say) grand finale, is happening on the evenings of Friday 17 and Saturday 18 April.
The farewell La Table dinner includes some of the restaurant’s most popular signature French dishes including grilled snail and leek compÔte with garlic crouton and béarnaise sauce as an appetiser.
An entrée of snapper croquette served in a light bouillabaisse sauce with micro herbs will be followed by Bruno’s now-famous duck confit as a ‘duo’ – confit duck leg and seared breast with carrot puree, courgette and orange salad on a small pond of shiraz jus. The sweet: a dessert of profiterole of chocolate, cinnamon ice cream and salty caramel sauce.
A fitting goodbye and a last hurrah for the sentimental tastebuds. The last dinners are $69 per person and a booking is definitely essential on 6684 2227 or by email: [email protected].
‘A change is a coming’
The business will be taken over by new owners with their own business name from the beginning of May, while Louise and Bruno are keeping their business name, La Table, and will be keeping us all in suspense while waiting for their next direction to be announced on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/la.table.byron – or just search for La Table Byron Bay.
