This restaurant will write a menu to suit your whims. But how does that work in practice?
This gorgeous city venue promises each diner a bespoke menu, a bit like having a private chef. But with food this good, Dani Valent questions the need for such a gimmick.
Previous SlideNext Slide
What do you feel like for dinner? Three years after opening, this elegant city restaurant has reshaped its nighttime offering to meet your whims. Tell your waiter your deepest dining fantasies and they'll prepare a $99 set-price meal to suit. Maybe you're feeling extra-carnivorous. Perhaps you want to be surprised. Or, possibly, you feel as I did: 'Lots of vegetables, maybe seafood, I love pickles.'
Freyja is in the Olderfleet Building, an 1890 beauty in the Venetian Gothic style with striking, pointed arches. As you enter, the open kitchen with woodfire is to the left and the dining room is to the right with tones in dark green, leather and exposed brick, and artwork that my notes describe as 'scary'. Please drink enough water that you need to visit the toilet in the new build at rear: the soaring atrium is heart-stopping.
'The food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!''
Chef Jae Bang is Korean, but when Freyja opened, he'd just spent three years leading Re-Naa in Norway, which earned its second Michelin star on his watch, and the Melbourne venue leaned into Norse mythology and cuisine. The goddess Freyja is associated with beauty, love and magic; the food was precise, using preserving techniques to layer flavour.
Bang also brought influences from his stints in junior roles at game-changing Spanish restaurants El Bulli and Arzak, plus time in New York under fine-dining master Daniel Boulud. From the beginning, you could tell he was accomplished and thoughtful.
Over time, Nordic notions have eased and the food feels relaxed and generous. It's more 'My god, that's good' than 'Ooh, how clever!'
Oysters are dotted with a green oil that turns out to be lovage kombucha. Kohlrabi is pickled and served with goat curd, fermented blackcurrant and kelp powder. Beef tartare uses green strawberries for tart acid (instead of, say, cornichons). The Ramarro farm salad name-checks a producer in the Dandenong Ranges: Freyja takes what's growing and turns it into a micro-seasonal expression.
Skate – a flat fish that comes away in long strands – is in a light broth with unripe blueberries that have been salted as though they were capers. They're cool, clean, juicy and one of many examples of marginal produce elevated through creativity and preservation.
Cauliflower cheese is my favourite comfort meal. Freyja's version is the one I'd eat if a genie gave me a wish: it's a crazy-fun jumble of miso, butter, hazelnut and toasty roasted veg.
Dessert is a joyful plaiting of the seasons: macadamia ice-cream, fig leaf oil, plum syrup, white chocolate and puffed grains are a melange of sour, sweet, creamy and caramelised.
Freyja is owned by Florence Guild, a collective that includes WorkClub, a mostly Sydney-based, high-end, co-working company with speaker events and activities, including calligraphy and dream mapping. The company runs a few cafes and a bar, but Freyja is its only restaurant.
The service here is keen and polished: our waiter chooses a great wine and does a lovely job of steering us through the choose-your-own-adventure concept which, let's be honest, is a stretch. After all, isn't a menu already a way to tell the kitchen what you feel like eating?
The bespoke promise doesn't exactly play out, either. Nearby tables have many of the same dishes and they're also available at lunch, which is still a la carte.
Having said that, everything is so delicious I don't care how it gets in front of me. Freyja was good from the get-go, but there was a slightly strained feeling. Now it has grown into one of the city's leading restaurants.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Age
10 hours ago
- The Age
Ghosts, grouches and hidden treasures: Forty years inside a Brisbane second-hand store
They call her 'Netty'. She wears a black sequinned gown, and has been seen sweeping down the aisle of the former Plaza Theatre in Paddington, now the Empire Revival antiques and interiors store. Lee Cary, the shop's customer relations manager, has seen her. One day, she and a colleague even heard her speak. It was just one word. 'She whispered, 'abundance'. We both heard it, then she just vanished,' Cary says. Customers have described an uncanny feeling in two areas of the building. 'There's a distinct energy,' Cary says. 'It's not eerie, but it's unmistakable.' 'Abundance' is an apt descriptor for Empire Revival. They have jewellery, homewares, furniture and retro clothing in abundance, with 60 merchants operating under the one roof. They have history in abundance too. The 900-seat Plaza Theatre was built in 1929, opposite the old tram terminal on Latrobe Terrace. Richard Gailey Jnr designed it as a pastiche of Spanish and Middle-Eastern architecture. Its financiers went insolvent while construction was still under way, so the building contractor, Hutchinson, went into the cinema business. It was designed to be an 'atmospheric theatre' – meaning its ceiling evoked the night sky, with a pulley system of moving clouds, stars and planets. Cinema patrons would jump on passing trams to get a beer at the Paddo Tavern before returning for the remainder of their session. 'We have had people come in who claim to have been conceived in the theatre,' owner Suzy Baines says. The building hasn't screened films since 1962, but the proscenium arch still clings precariously to the far wall. There are ornamental balconies and columns. The front of the building is old-school opulent, and a plaque in the floor of the foyer carries the name of the theatre. If you close your eyes, you can smell the Jaffas. When TV came along and killed the cinema, it became an indoor basketball court, then sat vacant for 10 years. In 1985, two couples – Graham and Anne Hesse and John and Heather Mildwaters – bought it, opening the Paddington Antiques Centre. Suzy Baines enters the story in 2008. Baines had worked in PR, as a speech and drama teacher, and as a bookkeeper. She had just bought a new home and needed some furniture. 'My mother and I went on an antiques-buying trip to Eastern Europe and brought back a container of antiques with no idea what we were going to do with them. Then I happened to be in Paddington with a girlfriend. 'I saw the sign in the window saying 'business for sale' and within a week, I bought it.' Suzy Baines Baines had never been in business. Counterintuitively, she reasoned she needed to buy a large enterprise because, with three children to raise, she was too busy to run a small one. 'This is a seven-day-a-week business, so you have to employ staff, and that gives you greater flexibility. 'The best piece of advice I got was from one of my brothers: 'Don't change anything until you understand why it's been done the way it's been done.'' She took over just as the GFC hit, but didn't feel its impact. '[Second-hand] does well when times are tough because people perceive it as offering better value.' Baines, who runs Empire Revival in partnership with her daughter, Olivia, rents out spaces but centralises the sales and manages the staff, leaving vendors free to find their stock, price it and display it. 'Our business model, I think, is going to become more and more used because it enables people to do what they're good at and have somebody else take care of the things that can drag you down. 'It's not just that the model works really well for retailers today, it's such a great way to use these old spaces.' True to her word, Baines has found another old cinema – Murwillumbah's 1947 Regent Theatre – to expand the business later this year. The Regent even has a similar name plaque in its floor. (Baines also has a store called The Emporium in Kalbar in the Scenic Rim.) 'Anything that you did with it other than have it as an antique centre was going to involve compromising how people experienced the space,' she says. 'We'll be part of an arts precinct that has so much vibrancy and activity already. You're buying into a community, and I really like that.' One of the colourful identities of Paddington, Baines has a flamboyant sense of personal style, favouring outfits with big sleeves and strong colours. Wandering around the Empire Revival shopfloor, she stops at a bright-green, trimmed fur coat with an orange collar and cuffs. 'Oh wow, look at that,' she says. 'Amazing! I reckon it's '60s.' Vintage clothing was the focus of the annual fashion parades she held here some years back, models sashaying a full circuit of the 700-square-metre store. Diversifying into clothing and new items, such as upholstery fabrics and lampshades by Sachs & Cornish, prompted a name change for the Paddington Antiques Centre in 2018. 'I needed the flexibility to be able to move into things that were more representative of what people were looking for,' Baines says. Antique items are still a feature at Empire Revival, however. She introduces me to one of the longest-standing merchants, Wallace, who points out a stunning art nouveau mirror, dated at 1904 (sale price: $1500). Baines tells me about the time 10 years ago when a woman came in clutching a large object wrapped in a towel. 'Her brothers used to play cricket and use it as stumps. Somehow, this thing that was rolling around in the back of her car survived.' It was an art deco vase by the English ceramicist Clarice Cliff (1899-1972). Longtime stallholder Stan Prickett made inquiries and verified its value at about $40,000. Nowadays, the store runs an Antiques Roadshow -style valuation service one Sunday a month, with three experts giving their opinions in exchange for a gold-coin charity donation. In 2020, Baines converted a storeroom into a second-hand book depository called The Cupboard Under the Stage, and opened the Loft Gallery to artist exhibitions. To acknowledge the shop's 40th anniversary and the building's silver-screen past, an exhibition of vintage movie gear has been set up in the foyer, courtesy of local collector John Schindler: clapper boards, a hulking old camera, a jazz-era microphone on a stand. Baines shows me the southern side of the building, where Netty has been spotted browsing. 'Over the years, people will come in, usually women, and say: 'I can't be here. I can't be in this space. There are presences here', and they flee.' She pauses, at the space where Rosie Bates used to have a stall selling jewellery, collectibles and small furniture pieces. Bates was British, brought up in China, and had an excellent eye for antiques. A ferocious competitor at auctions, she worked at the centre well into her eighties, before dying about a decade ago. Loading 'She was the most crotchety old woman you can imagine. But very funny! 'She always got a cab in. One day she came in, cross as, and said: 'That cabbie wanted to know where I wanted to go!' 'One day I said to her: 'Rosie, your trackie is inside out.' She said: 'Yes, the other side is dirty.'' Baines laughs. 'It's an industry of characters.'
Sydney Morning Herald
10 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Ghosts, grouches and hidden treasures: Forty years inside a Brisbane second-hand store
They call her 'Netty'. She wears a black sequinned gown, and has been seen sweeping down the aisle of the former Plaza Theatre in Paddington, now the Empire Revival antiques and interiors store. Lee Cary, the shop's customer relations manager, has seen her. One day, she and a colleague even heard her speak. It was just one word. 'She whispered, 'abundance'. We both heard it, then she just vanished,' Cary says. Customers have described an uncanny feeling in two areas of the building. 'There's a distinct energy,' Cary says. 'It's not eerie, but it's unmistakable.' 'Abundance' is an apt descriptor for Empire Revival. They have jewellery, homewares, furniture and retro clothing in abundance, with 60 merchants operating under the one roof. They have history in abundance too. The 900-seat Plaza Theatre was built in 1929, opposite the old tram terminal on Latrobe Terrace. Richard Gailey Jnr designed it as a pastiche of Spanish and Middle-Eastern architecture. Its financiers went insolvent while construction was still under way, so the building contractor, Hutchinson, went into the cinema business. It was designed to be an 'atmospheric theatre' – meaning its ceiling evoked the night sky, with a pulley system of moving clouds, stars and planets. Cinema patrons would jump on passing trams to get a beer at the Paddo Tavern before returning for the remainder of their session. 'We have had people come in who claim to have been conceived in the theatre,' owner Suzy Baines says. The building hasn't screened films since 1962, but the proscenium arch still clings precariously to the far wall. There are ornamental balconies and columns. The front of the building is old-school opulent, and a plaque in the floor of the foyer carries the name of the theatre. If you close your eyes, you can smell the Jaffas. When TV came along and killed the cinema, it became an indoor basketball court, then sat vacant for 10 years. In 1985, two couples – Graham and Anne Hesse and John and Heather Mildwaters – bought it, opening the Paddington Antiques Centre. Suzy Baines enters the story in 2008. Baines had worked in PR, as a speech and drama teacher, and as a bookkeeper. She had just bought a new home and needed some furniture. 'My mother and I went on an antiques-buying trip to Eastern Europe and brought back a container of antiques with no idea what we were going to do with them. Then I happened to be in Paddington with a girlfriend. 'I saw the sign in the window saying 'business for sale' and within a week, I bought it.' Suzy Baines Baines had never been in business. Counterintuitively, she reasoned she needed to buy a large enterprise because, with three children to raise, she was too busy to run a small one. 'This is a seven-day-a-week business, so you have to employ staff, and that gives you greater flexibility. 'The best piece of advice I got was from one of my brothers: 'Don't change anything until you understand why it's been done the way it's been done.'' She took over just as the GFC hit, but didn't feel its impact. '[Second-hand] does well when times are tough because people perceive it as offering better value.' Baines, who runs Empire Revival in partnership with her daughter, Olivia, rents out spaces but centralises the sales and manages the staff, leaving vendors free to find their stock, price it and display it. 'Our business model, I think, is going to become more and more used because it enables people to do what they're good at and have somebody else take care of the things that can drag you down. 'It's not just that the model works really well for retailers today, it's such a great way to use these old spaces.' True to her word, Baines has found another old cinema – Murwillumbah's 1947 Regent Theatre – to expand the business later this year. The Regent even has a similar name plaque in its floor. (Baines also has a store called The Emporium in Kalbar in the Scenic Rim.) 'Anything that you did with it other than have it as an antique centre was going to involve compromising how people experienced the space,' she says. 'We'll be part of an arts precinct that has so much vibrancy and activity already. You're buying into a community, and I really like that.' One of the colourful identities of Paddington, Baines has a flamboyant sense of personal style, favouring outfits with big sleeves and strong colours. Wandering around the Empire Revival shopfloor, she stops at a bright-green, trimmed fur coat with an orange collar and cuffs. 'Oh wow, look at that,' she says. 'Amazing! I reckon it's '60s.' Vintage clothing was the focus of the annual fashion parades she held here some years back, models sashaying a full circuit of the 700-square-metre store. Diversifying into clothing and new items, such as upholstery fabrics and lampshades by Sachs & Cornish, prompted a name change for the Paddington Antiques Centre in 2018. 'I needed the flexibility to be able to move into things that were more representative of what people were looking for,' Baines says. Antique items are still a feature at Empire Revival, however. She introduces me to one of the longest-standing merchants, Wallace, who points out a stunning art nouveau mirror, dated at 1904 (sale price: $1500). Baines tells me about the time 10 years ago when a woman came in clutching a large object wrapped in a towel. 'Her brothers used to play cricket and use it as stumps. Somehow, this thing that was rolling around in the back of her car survived.' It was an art deco vase by the English ceramicist Clarice Cliff (1899-1972). Longtime stallholder Stan Prickett made inquiries and verified its value at about $40,000. Nowadays, the store runs an Antiques Roadshow -style valuation service one Sunday a month, with three experts giving their opinions in exchange for a gold-coin charity donation. In 2020, Baines converted a storeroom into a second-hand book depository called The Cupboard Under the Stage, and opened the Loft Gallery to artist exhibitions. To acknowledge the shop's 40th anniversary and the building's silver-screen past, an exhibition of vintage movie gear has been set up in the foyer, courtesy of local collector John Schindler: clapper boards, a hulking old camera, a jazz-era microphone on a stand. Baines shows me the southern side of the building, where Netty has been spotted browsing. 'Over the years, people will come in, usually women, and say: 'I can't be here. I can't be in this space. There are presences here', and they flee.' She pauses, at the space where Rosie Bates used to have a stall selling jewellery, collectibles and small furniture pieces. Bates was British, brought up in China, and had an excellent eye for antiques. A ferocious competitor at auctions, she worked at the centre well into her eighties, before dying about a decade ago. Loading 'She was the most crotchety old woman you can imagine. But very funny! 'She always got a cab in. One day she came in, cross as, and said: 'That cabbie wanted to know where I wanted to go!' 'One day I said to her: 'Rosie, your trackie is inside out.' She said: 'Yes, the other side is dirty.'' Baines laughs. 'It's an industry of characters.'
Perth Now
a day ago
- Perth Now
Inside Troye Sivan's 30th birthday with Charli XCX in Spain
Troye Sivan celebrated his 30th birthday by sipping on margaritas and enjoying a Spanish feast in Barcelona with Charli XCX, friends and family. The Perth-raised pop star partied with those close to him at restaurant Casa Costa on Thursday night with a tasty menu fit for the ultimate party boy. The singer's dinner took place hours before his 1am set at the Primavera Sound festival, an annual three-day music event featuring the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Beabadoobee, Denzel Curry, Chappell Roan and Confidence Man. Sivan's special menu lineup included starters such as Iberian ham, bluefin tuna carpaccio, and grilled bass, as well as rib-eye steak for mains. The group finished off with a fancy floral birthday cake, Casa Costa flan and strawberries with whipped cream, the latter of which Charli XCX took a liking to. Troye Sivan celebrated his 30th birthday with Charli XCX. Credit: Supplied In a sweet birthday post on Instagram, Charli paid tribute to her 'most special' friend and fellow performer. 'Dear Troye. Happy birthday. You are one of the most special, sweet, kind and genuine people I've met in this weird walk of life,' she wrote in the caption alongside several photos from the evening. 'I love you so much and I'm so happy I've gotten to share so many moments with you on stage, on songs and in life. 'You deserve the world and more.' Sivan also posted his own birthday message, featuring a cute throwback photo of him as a youngster eating a Milo-flavoured yogurt. 'Its my birthday 😁😁😁😁😁 love you all and please come party w us at primavera tonight,' he wrote in the caption. Troye Sivan enjoyed Milo yogurt as a kid. Credit: Supplied While the Got Me Started singer is a world-class star, his birthday dinner gave casual, homely vibes with the restaurant set-up mirroring a dining room setting. The party guests' outfits also weren't as 'out there' as one might expect from a celebrity's milestone with Sivan opting for a striped white long-sleeve shirt and pants and Charli wearing a simple white, strapless top, sweatpants and black heels. Sivan's wholesome dinner party proved famous faces don't have to go to the ends of the earth to pull off an excessive celebration.
