June 29th was not that long ago. Just over 120 days in fact.
What the team at the Henry Austin achieved in the six weeks prior to that day, restoring and reopening a long closed and largely gutted three-story restaurant, was the prelude to of the new narrative they’ve been adding to week-by-week since. It’s a story which has re-imagined and reinvigorated an Adelaide dining institution, the very building South Australia’s constitution was first signed within, creating the first ever entirely ‘on consignment’ cellars in the world and bringing a new concept of ‘Australian Yum-Cha’ to a traditionally reticent Adelaide dining public; even for all the new ideas which have been embraced during recent years, on paper many nay-sayers would have labelled this concept a step too far.
But The Henry Austin has proven itself a revelation and around it delivered a new community to a largely forgotten set of laneways now affectionately labelled ‘Sunny Midtown’ by its new inhabitants. The larger than life personality of Maxwell James Mason has been the binding social glue responsible for bringing one-and-all together within the walls. Chef Shane Wilson and his team have created a menu which has tantalised, surprised and captured the imagination for the cooler months. Now, heading towards summer, it seems inevitable that the coming chapter of the Henry Austin’s narrative is set to evolve. And guiding the pen from the floor with a quiet and sure confidence is Tess Footner, the considered Ying of The Henry Austin, and the balance to Mason’s gregarious Yang.
It’s not a deliberate decision by Footner to shy from broader adulation, but a reflection of her close connection to the building that she chooses to express her love of the business within the walls than shout it from the rooftops. Having been chiefly responsible for the interior evolution of the Austin; from the carefully curated artwork, balance of old world charm and contemporary embellishments and the pronounced choice of solid-gold cutlery, her relationship with the space is based upon instinct more than calculated choice. An instinct which includes taking all of the rugs and artwork from the walls of her own home because it simply felt right for the space.
“Ultimately, I’ve turned it into an offshoot of my own lounge room, she smiles. “There hasn’t been a lot of stress about this project. I’ve got a big kick out of the challenge. In a building like this where the bones are incredible, I began dreaming different things for weeks before we settled on what we would do and it just evolved naturally. Stylistically what we create here has to pay some homage to the history. With a low budget and short amount of time that’s not a bad thing. I keep collecting and changing things every week. And in the coming months things will be changing and adapting with the new season. Some old pieces will go and new will come in. The art, for example, I did some of the curating myself but got a lot of help from a friend called Jo Kitto who is a local young curator who accessed a few local artists for me. We’ve formed a bit of a community around our set up; for example all of our plates and bowls were made by a friend I was at Art School with. Contacts that we’ve made over the years, also from opening other people’s businesses, you find you have all of the people around you with these talents, we may as well use them.”
She makes the process sound simple, but rest assured her modesty belies the true difficulty of resolving the rabbit warren like downstairs with the open main dining room, slightly disjointed street-facing cafe, and the private dining room upstairs. Footner credits her business partner Mason’s ever-evolving attitude with ensuring there was no choice but to keep pushing the boundaries of the building. “It’s been one of those projects where there has been so much going on, and that’s one of the delights of working with Max Mason is that there are a million things happening at once. It is difficult sometimes to focus on getting one thing perfect but the restaurant is doing really well now we’ve ironed out pretty well all the creases to make sure that the formula is solid. I do spend a bit more time down in the HA Bar trying to improve it because that space always wanted it’s own identity. I’d love to turn it into a cute little sexy underground bar like the Everleigh in Melbourne. Not to rip that off, but I love a mature dark space. It’s never going to be a club down there; we’re putting out awesome whisky sours and negronis in the afternoon. Trying to get a relationship between the spaces has been a challenge, especially with the 90s nightmare that was the old cafe space. That’s my new project and I’ve got a few things happening in there in the next few weeks to bring the spaces together.”
The fact that The Henry Austin is a very different dining concept, and also breaking from the quarterly ‘New Menu’ cycle of the broader hospitality environment meant that from the moment they opened their doors the staff have asked diners to place their full trust in them to allow them to curate their experience. It’s a concept that has, in part, been so successful because of the confidence that Tess and Chef Wilson have been able to impart throughout the dining room, but is also successful because they respect that not everyone is going to be comfortable being presented with this proposition.
“Not everything is for everybody, no matter how hard you try, and we’re perfectly fine with that,” says Footner. “Some people don’t like the colour blue and you won’t be able to change their mind. We’re running service this way because we love it and we hope other people do to. That’s all you can ever do. It’s that very tactile, very visual experience. The fact you can’t read a menu, choose what you think will be the best, that came about in part because I’m a terrible orderer. The reason I like this concept is because I like to be able to see something and I always have food envy from everyone else on the table. That visual experience that involves you in every step, is fun. Seeing a dish or a wine label you might recognise instead of remembering the name or the list of ingredients is just different way for looking at the world.”
Their unique perspective on hospitality is also set to inform the coming summer. As far as the internals go, the next evolution is set to be brighter in line with energy and momentum the city gains during the warmer months. There are whispers of an alfresco courtyard at the rear of the building, but that is in the council’s hands to decide. Plans are already in the works to ensure that all three floors of the building will be curated during the Fringe Season promising an artistic extravaganza to reflect what Tess and Max feel is the true Fringe – artists from the quirky end of the spectrum who write and perform distinct style for the simple reason that it is a part of who they are. “It should be about the outskirt experiences, not just the major shows,” Tess reiterates.
“I’m imagining for dinner, we’ll still be operating our normal services but there may be a cabaret show walking thorugh the middle of the restaurant. And we’re going to be quite involved in the Festival as well with their Fast Fine Dines. We want to get involved in the arts because it’s what we both love and when you’re working in hospitality you miss out on so much of the other things you love. Integrating them into this building is the dream. It’s all a bit hush-hush until things are finalised, but it will be great once it’s all done. It’s fun to think forward and plan these sorts of things.”
During their short existence The Henry Austin has demonstrated that pairing risk with respect and gut instinct results can create exciting innovations. In their first 120 days or so they have not established a restaurant but a personality with balls matching the size of Adelaide’s prized spherical sculptures. Long may it continue and long may we continue to enjoy the yin-yang synergy which propels this narrative born of Adelaide’s culinary history forward into the future.