77–97 Broken Head Road, Byron Bay
Fully licensed Dine In / Takeaway / Home Delivery Available
Mon-Sat: 4pm til late. Sun: 4pm til 10pm. Cnr Fletcher St and Lawson Lane, Byron Bay 6680 7426
MULLUMBIMBY
www.stelmodining.com
Peaceful dining by our tranquil rainforest Open seven days: breakfast, lunch & dinner Thursday Farmers Market Dinner 2 courses $52 per person 3 courses $62 per person
CHER’S BB UT
FIN
S POP UP
Experience the real taste of Thailand. Using local produce, local staff. Free courtesy bus provided for pick up and drop off! 20 years’ experience in the art of Thai cooking.
The Butcher’s BBQ
Salt Village, Kingscliff 6674 4833 dining@fins.com.au GOOD FOOD GUIDE CHEFS HAT EVERY YEAR SINCE 1998
The team behind Fins have just opened their new POP UP Restaurant The BUTCHER’S BBQ. Located next door to our fine diner, The Butcher’s BBQ offers a share style menu with ‘smalls’ and ‘bigs’ cooked on the grill (from $8-$38), communal tables, a cracking cocktail bar, boutique wine list and Gin Bar. This concept is only here for a short time. Extended Summer hours. Lunch every day from 27 Dec till 10 Jan
Coast Restaurant
St Elmo is a place where you can enjoy great company, first-class food, sophisticated cocktails and an extensive wine list. St Elmo is plating up modern Spanish cuisine to be enjoyed amongst friends and family. Our menus change regularly and feature daily specials.
Spice It Up Thai Restaurant Open Wednesday–Sunday Dine-in or Takeaway– from 5.30pm 6684 2209 Mullumbimby Bowling Club
Extended Summer Hours Lunch every day from 27 Dec till 10 Jan
GOOD FOOD GUIDE CHEFS HAT EVERY YEAR SINCE 1998
6639 2111 thebyronatbyron.com.au
St Elmo Dining Room & Bar
This year we celebrate 25 years of serving the finest local seafood. Join us in the sea breeze on our veranda for a lazy long lunch or intimate candle lit dinner.
Open 7 days from 11am, restaurant menu and all-day bar snacks. Located in the Ocean Shores Country Club 6680 1809
Monday night $15 Burgers & Beer Tuesday nights all Pizzas $15 Wednesday night - $10 Schnitzels Dine in or takeaway Large groups and events welcome.
CELEBRATIONS Celebrations Catering By Liz Jackson
BY LIZ JACKSON
KINGSCLIFF
Dinner Special $18 - Includes a wine or beer
Celebration cakes Personal catering services Event co-ordination and management
E: lizzijjackson@gmail.com P: 0414 895 441
OCEAN SHORES
Byron at Byron
Proudly awarded ‘Most Sustainable Seafood Restaurant’ 2015.
Salt Village, Kingscliff 6674 4833 dining@fins.com.au Dinner 7 days Lunch Fri, Sat & Sun
B
Open 7 days 12pm till late Byron St (opp Aldi) Byron Bay P 6680 9191 F 6676 4869 M 0403 516793 happychilligarden@hotmail.com
Fins
CATERING
Hong Kong chef specialising in Chinese and Malay foods
Happy Chilli Garden
Q
BYRON BAY CONTINUED
Good Taste Eating Out Guide
The Good Life Food Wine Travel www.echo.net.au/good-life
Advertising: adcopy@echo.net.au Editorial: goodlife@echo.net.au Phone: 6684 1777
PROFILE:
Tom’s not heading off The Rails any time soon The Rails is arguably Byron Bay’s most iconic and well-known place to eat and drink, keeping its ‘real Byron’ character, and live music, thanks to its owner, longtime publican Tom Mooney. By: Vivienne Pearson
Rock & Roll ovens Rock & Roll Café proprietors Trent and Michael in front of the historical ovens. You can still see the smoke on the walls (above). How times have changed. Suzie Gray and her brother in front of Grays Bakery c1970s (right).
A bit of Rock & Roll (Café) history is now on display; their long-awaited expansion at the rear of the cafe has revealed the old bakery ovens from the time when the historic building at 55 Burringbar St Mullumbimby housed Grays Bakery. According to Suzie Gray, the bakery was purchased by her grandfather, christened
Australian Ernest, from Montecollum and then passed on to her father Ronald Gray and his wife Beverley. Bread was sold from the front of the building (currently occupied by Oh Hang It Pot It) and the ovens were in the rear. Easter buns were made by the children in the ‘spare
room’ currently occupied by Frankie God of Hair; Suzie recalls baking being a tough job with her father working long hours, even with the assistance of young apprentice Bruce Pepper, who still lives in Mullumbimby.
Northern Rivers Food A new food festival, the Harvest Food Festival, is scheduled for the Anzac Day long weekend 21–24 April, offering four days of culinary adventures across the northern rivers region, connecting food lovers with local producers. Events will include dinners at 100 Mile Table, food tours of bush foods and coffee farms, sunset at The Point Ballina and the Big Harvest picnic at Mavis’s Kitchen. See more at www.harvestfoodfest.com
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
Tom Mooney’s life started near a railway line: ‘I grew up in the worst house in the only street on the wrong side of the tracks,’ he says. These days, Tom, business owner, Byron Bay enthusiast and former professional rugby player, spends much of his time on the ‘right side of the tracks’ – in a pub he owns that is located alongside the Byron Bay railway line. Tom moved from his hometown of Wauchope to this part of NSW in 1970, when he joined the first intake of teacher trainees in Lismore, and met his future wife and business partner, Cathryn. Happily, his marriage lasted longer than his teaching career. Three years after moving to Sydney to teach, the business world called and Tom started a transport business. ‘It was in the heart of the Sydney rag trade,’ he recalls. These endeavours all took place alongside a rugby career, as this was an era before highlevel sportspeople were paid a full-time professional wage. During his 10-year career, Tom played for South Sydney and Manly. Moving to Byron Bay was a big decision. ‘I could have played football for two more years but I was insecure about going backwards. I wanted my children to grow up in the country,’ he reflects. Tom and Cathryn bought The Railway Hotel, always better known as ‘The Rails’, when trains still ran on the tracks outside the door.
Though nostalgic for these times, Tom saw the writing on the wall with the arrival of cheap airline travel, so was not surprised that the train service ended. He would like to see a rail-trail conversion, though isn’t optimistic it will happen anytime soon. Tom and Cathryn have other businesses, but The Rails is where he feels most at home. He is quick to credit his wife as being the mainstay of their business success, and is full of praise for their staff, saying: ‘You can’t run a good business without good people’. He gets real joy out of seeing staff move onwards and upwards to their own ventures. He also gets a buzz out of having been a stepping-stone on the way up for many of the musicians who have played at the Rails over the decades. ‘I think I’m right that we’re the only place in Australia that can say we’ve had live music every night since 1982,’ he proudly but modestly says. At 64, despite some business failures and tough times, Tom feels very fortunate. Retirement is not on the horizon. His two children, Hannah and Luke, both live locally (Hannah is the current licensee of The Rails) and he is grandfather to five young children (or ‘Grandang’, as the youngest likes to call him). Thanks to his work, family, and community, Tom has no plans to head off the rails any time soon. The Byron Shire Echo March 23, 2016 23