Former Saint Peter and Arc Dining chef Alanna Sapwell-Stone is opening Esmay, an intimate 40-seat venue in a historic pub.
A pop-up from one of Australia’s most exciting chefs is going permanent, with Alanna Sapwell-Stone revealing the new home for her roving restaurant, Esmay.
The former Saint Peter and Arc Dining chef’s venue started life as a three-month pop-up at Noosa’s Wasabi in 2020, then spent a year undertaking a Good Food-supported tour of Australia.
The journey included stopovers in Canberra (at the capital’s beloved Bar Rochford), Sydney (Potts Point Mediterranean-inspired Ezra) and Perth at the flashy Ritz-Carlton Perth’s ground-floor fine-diner, Hearth.
One city that didn’t make it onto the touring schedule back then, however, was Adelaide. Four years on, Sapwell-Stone is finally bringing Esmay to the South Australian capital. Permanently.
Due to open in November, Esmay will be a joint venture between Sapwell-Stone and Christopher Horner and Steve Blanco of Blanco Horner: the hospitality group that gave South Australia the high-flying, three-hatted Restaurant Botanic at the Botanic Gardens.
‘I love cooking food using nutrient-dense vegetables and having a fresh touch on things.’
Alanna Sapwell-Stone
Blanco Horner, which transformed the gardens’ long-standing tearooms into a world-class fine-diner, will help oversee the redevelopment of The Hackney Hotel, a pub built in 1880.
Sapwell-Stone won’t be bringing the upscale pub food from her recent tenure at The Eltham Hotel in northern NSW, however. Rather, the dynamic cooking talent will return to the polished, ingredient-first cooking approach of her Saint Peter and Arc Dining eras that raised her profile as a talent to watch.
The new 40-seat dining room at the historic Hackney will be an equally smart and considered workplace.
Just as Esmay the pop-up used new-school thinking to reimagine nostalgic flavours (the concept was named after its owner’s mustard-coloured 1972 Squareback Volkswagen), Esmay the restaurant will also combine old and new concepts.
Designer Emma Aronsten of EDA Interiors is retaining and working around the ground floor’s stained-glass windows, fireplaces and other vintage accents to build a sleek dining room that’s in line with Sapwell-Stone’s vision of accessible deliciousness.
“I remember going to Fleet for the first time and being blown away by how they could format their menu in a way that was approachable enough that a steak-well-done eater like my dad could come in and find something to eat, but then as a chef, it was equally interesting for me,” says Sapwell-Stone, a former Good Food Guide chef of the year finalist.
“That’s something that I really carried on through Arc, through the pop-ups and what I want to be carrying on through here.”
In regards to the menu, Sapwell-Stone is reluctant to name specific dishes this far out from opening. Instead, she’s looking forward to working with South Australian producers and adapting her cooking to supplies from local providers such as Michael Wohlstadt of The Dairyman in the Barossa Valley and Smoky Bay razorfish farmer James Boylan.
One thing she’ll be mindful of, however, is keeping the food lighter and brighter than the more-is-more cooking of previous years.
“Fine dining has changed a lot in the last five years,” she says.
“You’d go to these places and it would be fat on fat and rich and rich. It was very delicious, but you’d leave thinking, ‘I can only do that on special occasions.’
“I love cooking food using nutrient-dense vegetables and having a fresh touch on things. I want customers to leave Esmay feeling good and having put something good into their bodies.”
Esmay will open at 95 Hackney Road, Hackney.
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Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
