There’s a new restaurant in Brunswick Heads called ‘River – Wild at Heart’, with a Scottish-born chef (Michael Lee), who has won chef hats in the AGFG since 2017, most recently during a 5-year stint at Potager at Carool, and before that as head chef at Peppers’ signature Season restaurant in their Salt Resort at Kingscliff.
The new restaurant’s focus is on modern Australian cuisine with a creative approach emphasising sustainability, seasonality, and locally-sourced food that ‘honours the region’s abundance with integrity and imagination’. Expect the menu of small plates to change often, depending on the ingredients, produce and inspiration of the chef, but this week the menu includes many tantalising items.
Expect dishes like Charcoal Walgett kangaroo carpaccio with pickled macadamia, native raspberry ketchup and wattleseed damper; Ooray plum-glazed Bangalow pork belly with wild weed kimchi and squid crackers; Earth brewery brown ale braised ox cheek with warrigal green colcannon, pigface salsa verde and rosella pickled onion, or the Line-caught market fish with lemon myrtle and fingerlime avgolemono and karkalla.
Perfect for those cooler nights, you might like to try the Tarragon roasted Alstonville chicken supreme with celeriac brulee, winter Australian truffle, bacon and chicken gravey. Vegetarians are not fogottten, with options like ‘Souk style’ smoked organic cauliflower with saffron and hemp hummus, macadamia za,atar and shawarma pickles – there are plenty of GF, DF and VGN options too.
Harriet-Rose Johnson, with her award-winning wine list recognition and 5-star hotel experience, is in charge of the wine, with her emphasis being on ‘vibrant, expressive and authentic’ wines that capture the essence of their region.
Anyone who lives in the Byron Shire and eats out will appreciate the creativity and effort that goes into the excellent restaurants available to us, but chef Michael Lee is equally appreciative of the chance to run his own restaurant in the region. Michael counts himself lucky to live in the Byron Shire area of northern New South Wales, saying, ‘Here I get access to some amazing, beautiful and unique ingredients and a great relationship with all my suppliers.’
‘The area’s unique landcsapes and environmental elements, including the Northern Rivers volcanic-rich soils and stunning beaches, enable farms to produce high quality ingredients. As well as sourcing locally,’ he says. Michael also works with Skye Foggin of the foragers plate who sources local wild edibles, flowers and herbs, enabling some interesting flavour combinations.
Changing the menu according to season means that flavours vary and works out more favourably in terms of the environment and costs.
‘As chefs, we have to be responsible for produce we use and the environmental footprint we leave behind,’ he says.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
