Story and photos by Vivienne Pearson
We take our hat off to locals awarded hats in the 2017 Good Food Guide awards, announced last week:
Two hats (last year one hat): Fleet, Brunswick Heads
Two hats (new): Paper Daisy, Cabarita Beach
One hat (retained): Town Restaurant, Bangalow
One hat (retained): Fins, Salt/Kingscliff
Best NSW Regional Restaurant: Paper Daisy
Regional Wine List of the Year: Fleet
Service Excellence: Astrid McCormack, Fleet
Run by Fairfax Media, the awards are reportedly based on anonymous and independent reviews, with reviewers booking under assumed names and receiving no ‘freebies’.
Karl Kanetani, from Town Café and Restaurant, confirms this is the case. ‘If someone such as Terry Durack [one of the reviewers] turns up, you recognise him,’ Karl says. ‘But you won’t know until he arrives, so you won’t have prepared any differently. They don’t want to be treated specially.’ Town has been awarded one hat each year for the six years they have been in operation.
Fins has also held a hat (sometimes two) for 21 of its 23 years of operation. Paper Daisy, based at Halcyon House in Cabarita Beach, been awarded not only two hats but Best NSW Regional Restaurant. Chef Ben Devlin (ex-NOMA) says: ‘Being recognised alongside the top restaurants… is such an unexpected but fantastic result for all of us… it’s a great reward for everyone’s hard work’.
Fleet, the tiny restaurant in Brunswick Heads that was awarded Best NSW Regional Restaurant last year, have this year added a second hat and won Best NSW Regional Wine List. And, as will come as no surprise to anyone who has dined at Fleet, Astrid McCormack was presented with an award for her exceptional service.
The awards were presented in Sydney last week in an event described by Steven Snow as: ‘The NSW Academy Awards for restaurants.’ Steven enjoys attending as a chance to catch up with his industry friends. The Fleet crew also were there, combining their attendance with a well-deserved break. Katrina and Karl Kanetani from Town sacrificed attendance to focus on the Sample Food Festival as well as simply keeping their restaurant open. ‘Being the only two chefs makes it hard to get away,’ Katrina says.
On the back of these awards, our region continues, quite rightly, to be the subject of much talk in food circles.
Steven Snow (Fins) puts on his hat.
Fleet were awarded two hats.
Katrina and Karl (Town) enjoy wearing a hat.
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