7 Alfred only asks diners to choose if they want their 220-gram Gippsland scotch fillet cooked medium or well done, and what sauce to go with it.
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Melbourne’s first restaurant serving only steak frites as a main course – and only one side salad and one dessert – is open from today.
It comes to Alfred Place in the CBD after Hunter St. Hospitality – the group behind Rockpool Bar & Grill, Spice Temple, Sake and more –launched a Sydney version of the dining concept in July.
Called 24 York for its street address in Sydney, the 200-seat restaurant got off to a flying start.
“We did just over 500 covers on the first day,” says Hunter St. Hospitality cheif executive Frank Tucker. “We wanted to prove we could get a steak on the table in 10 minutes – and we did.”
Melbourne will get a slice of the steak when its counterpart 7 Alfred, also named for its address, arrives in a grand three-storey space once used for Rockpool events, which was previously home to Stokehouse City and Mietta’s.
The formula will be identical to that in Sydney: one main, one side and one dessert.
The piece de resistance is steak and fries – the French bistro classic – with 7 Alfred looking to emulate the success-in-simplicity of such restaurants as Le Relais de l’Entrecote, which has been all about steak frites since it launched in France in 1959.
The star at 7 Alfred is a 220-gram grass-fed scotch fillet with a marble score of two, sourced from Gippsland producer O’Connor and served with a sauce, and fries cooked in beef tallow, for $48.
The same cut of Gippsland beef is on the menu at Rockpool Bar & Grill, decided on after multiple tastings – including a blind one – to compare flavour and texture between cuts.
By dedicating themselves to a single dish, “we’re trying to take the complexity out at a time when complexity is what is killing businesses,” says Tucker.
“Someone [in Sydney] asked: ‘When will you add another item [to the menu]?’ We won’t. It’s not a gimmick.”
At 7 Alfred, you – and everyone else – will be going for the steak frites. But there are still a couple of choices to make. Medium or well done? And which sauce: chimichurri, peppercorn, veal jus or umami butter?
“At a time when there’s a lot of trepidation [around the cost of dining out], you know what you’re going to get, you know what the price is … and you’re not going to break the bank,” says Tucker.
Plus, there’s a guarantee that you can be in and out within half an hour.
The menu’s only extras are an $8 side salad, made with seasonal Victorian leafy greens, and a $12 New York-style cheesecake served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
Drinks are affordably priced on the whole, but even more so during the daily happy hour, offering $7 beers, house wines and spirits as well as $12 martinis and negronis.
7 Alfred opens on October 22 at 7 Alfred Place, Melbourne, 7alfred.com.au
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