Long-standing chef and local Ian Curley’s first restaurant as sole owner is split between a fine-ish dining room with a set menu (Baix) and an adjoining wine bar (81 Bay). Dani Valent compares three courses in both spaces.
14.5/20
European$$
If you were a chef of long standing growing a little tired of lugging yourself into the city from the chi-chi bayside neighbourhood you’d lived in for 20 years, all that time lamenting the dearth of nice wine bars and polished Euro restaurants in the vicinity, you might reasonably consider opening such a venue yourself. That’s exactly what Ian Curley, burgher of Brighton, did and the result is Baix.
Baix includes a fine-dining-ish restaurant and the adjoining wine bar, dubbed 81 Bay. They’re at the base of The International, a ritzy, five-storey development where the spacious apartments have dedicated wine fridges and the valet will walk your oodle.
In 2021, Curley was announced as the anchor tenant, helping to lure downsizers with the notion that they could get the kind of experience he delivered at restaurants such as The European and Kirk’s Wine Bar, but by the front door of their new pad. The slated 2022 opening date whizzed by in a fun tumble of building snafus and, a mere three years later, Baix sizzled its first steak.
It’s not quite Spring Street’s European in the ’burbs, but Baix is bang-on for Brighton.
This is Curley’s first restaurant as sole owner and he’s cleverly working the angles, creating appealing and distinctive dining and drinking options that should also stack up as enduring business models. The two kitchens are run separately within the same space – picture Curley as a colonel trying to be patient with the troops – and the ingredients span both menus.
81 Bay is a flexible, drop-in place open six nights a week. Maybe you live upstairs and hang at the bar solo for gnocchi with pumpkin and a cheeky glass of beaujolais. Or you’ve managed to get the kids sorted, so you text the gals to head in for champagne cocktails and Yarra Valley caviar with blinis.
You could do as I did, and have three courses, too. Everyone’s doing prawn toast right now but I’m hook-line-sinker for this one, brisk with espelette pepper, tail on for flourish, a yum cha essential gone posh.
There’s local farmed trout cooked in a paper parcel with ratatouille, a bright, lush preview of summer.
And take it from me, gooey chocolate cake is a fine way to mop up a glass of Barossa shiraz.
The same skilled, drilled staff look after you here and in the restaurant, which is open for three dinners a week. Where the bar is hard surfaces, windows to the street and happy buzz, the restaurant is carpet, banquettes and internal walls, a cocoon for occasions.
A weekly menu ($95 per person) includes shared entrees, a main for each, desserts to split or hoard as you wish. There’ll generally be steak, poultry and fish: wagyu porterhouse is served in the restaurant, while the cheaper rump cap is grilled for the bar. I lucked onto flathead with silky-soft fennel and crisped curry leaves, and plundered my friend’s duck pithivier, a French puff-pastry pie.
As you’d expect from an accomplished chef who’s beyond showing off these
days, the ideas are good without rocking any boats and the cooking is on
point. The restaurant desserts were a little fussy, though; I preferred the simplicity of those in the wine bar.
Brighton isn’t an easy market to crack, but Baix’s canny approach should pay off, especially come summer when the pavement will be dotted with tables. The drinks list is broad and savvy, the food hits the mark and the experience is chatty and upbeat (bar) or accomplished and smooth (restaurant). It’s not quite Spring Street’s European in the ’burbs, but it’s bang-on for Brighton.
The low-down
Atmosphere: Two-speed bar and restaurant that can lean light-hearted or luxe
Go-to dishes: Trout en papillote ($39), prawn toast ($18), pithivier (part of a $95 three-course menu), chocolate cake ($14)
Drinks: When Baix opened, its 300-bottle wine list instantly became one of the best bayside offerings: ask to browse the big-ticket wines in the glassed cellar. Cocktails are a savvy, fun mix of the classic and adventurous.
Cost: About $150 for two in the bar; $95 per person in the restaurant,
excluding drinks
This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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