Some venues are near synonymous with the people in them. The people that are always in the kitchen, or at the door: Kylie Kwong asking for service during lunch at Lucky Kwong; Amelia Birch waxing lyrical about a glass or two at Famelia; Sean Moran buzzing about at Sean’s. When these places shift and change, regulars cling to the experience they know, tentative about what it’ll become. That’s what’s happening in Randwick at Corner 75.

For the last 12 of its 40-plus years as a restaurant, Corner 75 was as much about interacting with the welcoming owner-operator Paul Varga as dining. The place was a hub of community and connection for Australia’s Hungarian community. When it was announced Varga was passing the reins to someone else, people were worried.

Today, Dan Puskas (of Stanmore fine diner Sixpenny) and Baba’s Place’s Jean-Paul El Tom and Alex Kelly are deep in a renovation of the Randwick dining room, which they’re hoping to reopen in February. When Broadsheet asks whether the sentimentality for Varga’s era is front of mind, the team lays it straight.

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

“It impacts almost every decision we make,” Kelly says. “It’s consistently factored into our approach. But we’re trying not to be frozen by this expectation … we are respectful and will continue to be reverential, but we hope the additions we bring will become classic and comforting in no time. [We want] to be as honest and as vulnerable as we can be with the recognition of the restaurant’s significance and our hope to bring something new to it.”

Sixpenny and Baba’s Place are very special Sydney venues, too – both loved for their singular dining experiences. The differences between them add to the excitement: the meeting of these two teams is big.

Puskas (who has Hungarian heritage) and El Tom, both chefs, are developing the new menu, informed by a trip to Hungary and cooking through The Cuisine of Hungary. “It’s like the Larousse of Hungarian Cuisine,” Puskas says. “Well, to me it is anyway. The stories in the book are even better. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Danube and Lake Balaton (a freshwater lake in western Hungary) were swimming with fish – ‘often more fish than water’ it says in one part of the book’.” That means more seafood, Randwick. But a lot else will remain.

When diners harbouring any hesitation return, they’ll be glad to recognise the classic Corner 75 schnitzels, service and ambience. And the restaurant’s jigsaw of framed photos on the deep-red walls – which are spookily Baba’s-esque. It was this aesthetic similarity that encouraged the Baba’s team to sign on the dotted line. “The familial and community-led approach definitely helped,” Kelly says. “But it was more what Corner 75 stands for within the community that made it a no-brainer for Baba’s Place to be involved.”

The bar area will come into its own with new dedicated seating, and the kitchen – captained by head chef Carley Scheidegger (ex-Fred’s) – is being completely transformed. Alice Tremayne (ex-Attica) joins as general manager, and she’ll also be curating the wine, which is tipped to feature Hungarian winemakers living here and abroad. To put it simply, the menu is steered by the “very best ingredients” the team can get.

“But a simple slice of esterházy done well isn’t so simple is it?” says Puskas. “Corner 75 will feel and remain mostly the same – it will be a fun place to be.”

The venue is cherished by the Hungarian community across Sydney, along with Randwick locals, but if you listen to what the new custodians are saying, you can be confident it’s in caring hands. “I want to stress that this isn’t just a celebration of Hungary, but a celebration of Corner 75 and Hungarian migration to Oz,” El Tom says.

Anyway, there’s a careful eye overseeing what the team’s choosing to call a “preservation project”: “Paul is ever-present,” Kelly says. “If we aren’t speaking to him on-site, we are bumping into him at Coogee Beach.”

Corner 75 is expected to reopen under its new owners in February 2025.

corner75.com.au
@corner.75