The longstanding Brompton Hotel will reopen later this month – after a year of closure – under ownership by the Duxton Pubs Group.
The rapidly expanding pub investment fund has already acquired 30 hotels across the state since forming in 2020, including the Saracens Head, The Lion and The Crafers. Now they’re turning their attention to the inner north-west with the rejuvenation of The Brompton, and have appointed esteemed Sydney-born chef Andrew Wandless (previously head chef at Merivale’s Una Mas) to steer the kitchen.
Wandless, who also lists awarded London fine diners such as The Ledbury, Texture and Hibiscus on his resume, as well as a short stint at Magill Estate Restaurant before he joined the Spanish-flavoured Una Mas, is promising a menu of “good, honest cooking” that’s a little bit nostalgic and a lot European.
“It’s obviously more than just a pub,” says Wandless, who moved back to Adelaide in August. “The way I cook is: good ingredients, a little bit of skill, don’t fuck around with it too much – let it shine and do its thing – and good relationships with suppliers, and that’s what I want to do at The Brompton.”
In practice, that might mean small plates of anchovies with blistered tomatoes and caramelised onion, smoked mackerel with cucumber and yoghurt, and a spanner crab omelette with a mornay glaze. Larger dishes include Berkshire pork loin with preserved lemon, roasted sugarloaf cabbage with seeded mustard miso and grains, and a spherical crumbed-to-order chicken Kyiv served with cabbage slaw and Lyonnaise potatoes (sliced and pan-fried with onion in butter and parsley). “I’m not gonna put a parmigiana on there, but a chicken Kyiv is just a bit different, it’s a little bit more technical,” says Wandless.
There’ll also be a selection of ultra-Euro bar snacks, including burrata with heirloom tomatoes, a chorizo scotch egg, a French dip sandwich, and a croque monsieur.
Another recent acquisition of Duxton Pubs is Stepney brewery Little Bang, so you can expect their beers on tap and in some of the dishes, including the IPA-battered onion rings and the bread, which is made with spent grain. The concise drinks menu will also include local beers and spirits from the community of craft breweries and distilleries in the inner-west area, plus a 100-bottle wine list with a solid international presence, curated by the group’s wine-buyer Pablo Theodoros (who also part-owns Mother Vine and the Stanley Bridge Tavern). There'll also be a program of Coravin wines by the glass available in the dining room.
Joshua Hillary, the general manager of Duxton Pubs’ management arm BSGM Group, reckons the time is right to bring people from outside the neighbourhood to the heritage watering hole. “With the growth and development around Bowden and Plant 4, and what’s happening in parts of Thebarton there with Bloom and a few other bits and pieces, I think there’s a need to have some sort of destination-led dining in the [inner] western suburbs,” he tells Broadsheet.
“We’d been talking to Andrew since early January this year, and we just massaged the concept out with him. It’s a great property, it’s a beautiful old heritage building, and it needs something to be destination-led to get people there, as well as catering as a local venue.”
The group bought the pub in September 2021 before closing it in December for extensive renovations by Folland Panozzo Architects, Georgie Fried (Alchemists ID) and Sarah Matthews (creative director of the BSGM Group). The gaming room is gone, there’s a new open kitchen and U-shaped bar, and the dining room has been gutted to make way for a new, softer look.
“The idea is that it will be multifaceted – the dining room will be quite light and bright and lend itself to a more intimate dining-led experience,” says Hillary. “And then the bar on the other side is unpretentious, warm and welcoming – just a comfortable environment for people to sit and drink and eat.”
Adds Wandless: “It’s kind of like a working-class fine-dining restaurant ... I think a good, comfortable upmarket pub with good food that’s not out of someone’s price range is really gonna hit the mark around there.”
The Brompton Hotel will reopen for bookings on Wednesday November 23. The dining room will trade for lunch and dinner seven days a week and the bar will trade seven days from 11am till late.
