Once dismissed as a steel city with a dash of surf culture to boot, Newcastle was used to playing second fiddle as a foodie destination to its Hunter Valley neighbours.
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But diners no longer have to flock to the valley and its wineries and restaurants, with Newcastle coming into its own as a dining destination. With at least 30 places to eat, drink or get a caffeine fix in just a few square kilometres in the CBD, we’re certainly spoilt for choice.
And diners can indulge in everything from Spanish, to Mexican and just about everything in between, something that restaurateur Babak ‘‘Bob’’ Abbaszadeh is counting on, given he opened what is said to be the only Persian restaurant in the Hunter Region on King Street last week.
‘‘Novocastrians are adventurous eaters, it’s no secret,’’ Abbaszadeh told GT when we caught up with him in the back room of the eatery at the former Periwinkles site.
Cafe Zeytoon – meaning olive – began serving its unique interpretation of Persian cuisine in recent weeks.
The simplistic and fitting olive-green facade of the eatery opens wide and low on the corner of Bolton and King streets, revealing Middle Eastern decor.
Cafe Zeytoon’s menu consists largely of traditional rice dishes and kebobs (not to be confused with kebabs) but Abbaszadeh is confident that diners will be rewarded for their wandering into unfamiliar territory.
‘‘Persian cuisine does nothing in extremes. It uses familiar spices, from paprika to saffron, but it’s very subtle and nuanced,’’ Abbaszadeh said. Cafe Zeytoon is said to be the only Persian restaurant in the Hunter Region, but certainly finds itself in good company in the CBD.
‘‘It’s very multicultural around here, it’s something you can’t experience even in greater Newcastle – we have Spanish, German, Italian. It attracts experienced diners,’’ Abbaszadeh said.
Abbaszadeh studied culinary art in Malaysia and has worked in restaurants ranging from French to Italian before moving to Newcastle a year ago and teaching Persian cooking at The Essential Ingredient. The varied experience has clearly had an impact on his approach to the dishes of his native Iran. Cafe Zeytoon will serve up a ‘‘mixture of authenticity and modernity’’.
Cafe Zeytoon is open for breakfast and lunch Monday to Saturday, so head in to try drinks such as saffron latte, Arabic coffee and Persian tea and lunch dishes including Persian rice dishes, stew and an assortment of sandwiches.
It is also open Friday and Saturday nights for mazze such as olives cured in pomegranate molasses, crushed walnut and herbs and chenjeh (grilled lamb skewers with tarragon sauce). The eatery is BYO with a liquor licence in the works.
Another recent addition to the scene is La Belle Epoque, at the former Restaurant Deux site on Bolton Street.
Last month Lesley Taylor announced she was closing the hatted restaurant to focus on her more casual cafe, King Street’s La Petit Deux and cheffing at Longworth House. In just a few weeks the space has been transformed into La Belle Epoque under the guidance of owners Angela and Dominique Wehrle, and owner and chef Christophe Pernay.
The Wehrles also run La Belle France, Morpeth’s purveyor of all things French, after initially opening a shop called La Belle Epoque in late 2010. Now the name belongs to their eatery that opens on Bolton Street this week.
The couple met Pernay after the chef visited their French shop.
‘‘For a long time we had always wanted to open a restaurant and when Christophe walked in the shop one day we said, bingo! There’s our chef’,’’ Angela Wehrle told GT.
She explained the eatery would be a little slice of France.
‘‘The chef is French, the staff are French, the food is French, it will all be French,’’ she said. ‘‘It will be typically French cuisine and will be like walking into something in Paris.
‘‘We will all be speaking French so if you want to brush up on your French you can converse with us. We’re also hoping to do movie nights and we’ll have a bar upstairs and a conference centre that can do weddings.’’
Wehrle said the eatery would be more casual than the previous eatery at the site and would be BYO and licensed. The lunch menu has dishes for $16 and cafe gourmand (coffee and petite fours) if you’re after something sweet.
She said the trio jumped at the opportunity to move into the Newcastle CBD.
‘‘It’s a go-ahead area. I think it’s got big potential there with all the apartments going in and the lunch crowd. It’s a great area.’’
There are more restaurants going in and it’s going to be the place to eat,’’ she said.
La Belle Epoque is open Tuesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner. Call 49295575 for bookings.
Just a few blocks east, Casa de Loco opened last month at 10 Pacific Street, Newcastle East (the former Osteria San Marco and Marco On The Park site), to bring a taste of Mexican to the CBD. Novocastrians have already voted with their feet and the eatery is fully booked most nights, so get in quickly for a table.
Open Wednesday to Sunday for dinner and weekends for lunch, Casa de Loco’s menu uses free-range and organic produce where possible to produce an array of dishes such as ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime juice with green chilli, white onion, avocado and coriander), tostadas, quesadillas, soft tacos, empanadas and plenty more.
They’re not shying away from some authentic South American ingredients either – including achiote (a shrub used in Mexican cooking), tomatillo (a plant related to the cape gooseberry), chipotle (smoked chilli pepper), jicama (a sweet root vegetable) and cactus.
Casa de Loco also has a range of cocktails using the Mexican favourite tequila, including the ever popular margarita as well as the Poco Loco DIY cocktail, the Casa de Loco Smash with fresh pineapple, passionfruit, mint and orange blossom, the pina colada with muddled pineapple and lime served with a warm white chocolate coconut mousse, and Tommy 2 Kids, with agave, lime and grapefruit ice blocks.
Beer lovers are also catered for with cerveza preparada, meaning ‘‘prepared beer’’. Called a michellada at Casa de Loco, the prepared beers are a spiced citrus mix added to a Pacifico beer, served in a chilled glass with salted rim. Go to casadeloco.com.au for more.
