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Powles Brian Powles from red grapevine talks about their new menu and his 8th year at the restaurant.
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ell us a little about your new menu. It is a mixture of some favourites, brand new dishes and also some more traditional dishes that have been reworked and modernised. Warm weather has finally arrived to Armidale this year, and we've loved the opportunity to match it with some summertime food and wines. After 8 years at the restaurant, does designing a menu come easily? Well, we've certainly had plenty of practice, but in some ways it actually becomes harder over time. It's easy to be a brand new place with a buzz of fresh ideas, but once your customers get to know you and develop expectations of your restaurant, there are a couple of extra challenges. There are pizzas, pastas and sweets on our menu that we can't remove, as we have so many regular customers who would kill us. On the other hand, our customers welcome fresh new ideas. There's such a wide range of people living in and visiting Armidale, and the aim is to design a menu with all types in mind. It's part of the challenge of being established for a long time in a diverse community. Has Armidale changed much in that time? A lot! We moved here on a Saturday afternoon in 2004, and I remember the town centre was deserted! We've had a lot of retail development since then, and now the town is a lot more cosmopolitan. We're at the centre of Australia's newest wine industry, and the hospitality industry has also come a long way. Many of the pubs have done big renovations, and there are also a lot of smaller food operators doing really exciting things. It's meant more competition for us, but it's also become a local industry that we're really proud to be a part of. How has the restaurant industry changed over the years? Although certain trends come and go, what has changed is that there is so much more awareness of food. With celebrity chefs, the internet, travel and cookbooks, customers are very knowledgable now and have a clear idea
of what they expect. With times a little tougher financially, customers are also really conscious of value for money, and health is also a lot more important to people than it used to be. This has been pretty humbling for some chefs, and a lot have had to re think their motivations. We've always wanted red grapevine to be a place where customers could go to be looked after really well and eat great flavoursome food. While being creative with food is really exciting, the customer experience is the most important thing for us. Who inspires you? Our house is exploding with Nat's cookbook collection and her obsession with food magazines. I also follow a handful of really inspiring food blogs online. Celebrity-wise, my favourite chefs are Giorgio Locatelli, who is an icon of northern Italian cooking, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his passion for all things food. In general, I'm inspired by the lifestyle of the classic Italian family – every single thing they eat is a very important part of their lives. What's the future for red grapevine? We're not going anywhere! We love what we do, and we have a fantastic base of loyal customers and staff. An important part of our food philosophy is to make as much as possible from scratch, and we'd like to continue to grow in this direction. This year (together with the guys at the Gherkin) we will retailing our homemade Ciabatta directly to the public for the first time. We're also planning some cross promotional events with some of my friends in the local wine industry. There'll be plenty of new menus, and specials each week. We have a lot of plans – and can't wait to get on with them. Phone (02) 6772 2822 or v isit us at www.redgrapevine.com.au
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