NEWCASTLE'S only hatted restaurant, Subo, will offer a new "interactive" menu available for pick-up from next week, allowing its customers to plate up at home.
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Owner Suzie Vincent said the contemporary diner will continue serving its diners at its Newcastle West premise, however from March 26 it will offer a three-course menu for collection.
The dishes and certain ingredients will be cold when collected then require "basic cooking skills" from customers to complete at home. For example, from the first menu, a corn-fed chicken with merguez stuffing that is slow-cooked until tender by Subo head chef Michael Portley and his team can be finished briefly in a saucepan at home to create a crust. The takeaway menu will, like the restaurant menu, change regularly.
"The offer is very close to what we would do to prepare the restaurant for service, then we are asking the guests to do a simplified version of what we do to finish off a meal. So, we prepare a dish to a certain degree, then what we do when the guest is dining with us, that's what we are trying to share with our customers," she said.
As the hospitality sector grapples with stricter health regulations amid the coronavirus pandemic and many people self-isolate or exercise social distance, Ms Vincent said Subo was adapting by diversifying.
Subo, renowned for its creative and contemporary dishes of the highest quality and commitment to using fresh local produce, was offering the new menu for customers who understood its food ethos to help them recreate the restaurant's intimate experience at home.
"We are trying to give people the Subo experience, we will take a few dishes similar to what is on the menu so they can feel it is what we do," Mrs Vincent said. "We don't want to offer takeaway as standard takeaway."
Mrs Vincent said the new menu would ensure the quality was as close Subo's quality as possible, thus customers were being asked to deliver final touches.
Amid the uncertainty, Mrs Vincent said cooking provided a chance for connection and positivity and Subo wanted to support its customers in this pursuit.
"We are trying to cater to our standards and to people who want celebrate at home but can't because they don't have access to the ingredients we do with our suppliers," she said.
"This could also be a great gift you can pass to someone who is sick of eating pasta six days in a row. It won't necessarily need to be cooked on the day of collection."
The new three-course menu for two costs $120-125, with dessert. Extras, from cheese to freshly-shucked oysters, are available.
"More than ever with this forced shut down of so many things that we usually entertain ourselves with, we are looking inwards into the home and thinking about what we can do to enjoy ourselves," Mrs Vincent said.
Subo is considering a delivery option and also changing its licensing so it can also provide wine in the offering.
See Weekender for a full list of Hunter eateries that have diversified services for clients.
