Two of the city’s best young chefs now have a home fit for their talents. They’re cooking seasonally inspired local produce accompanied by Aussie wines.
Clarence is complete.
Yes, Ben McShane and Matt Kuhnemann’s new 60-seat take on Clarence in Fish Lane, in a ground floor tenancy of the Cremorne apartment building, is finished, and looks fetching in all its Alkot Studio-designed finery.
But Clarence as a concept finally feels complete.
The restaurant’s original premises in the old Shop Row building on Stanley Street in Woolloongabba were intended to skate through on their heritage charm – all the better to keep the focus on McShane’s food – and they did for a while.
But as McShane and then Kuhnemann’s ideas grew in intention and execution, the old brick lined space seemed less fit for purpose. And it was a pain to get to, meaning the restaurant never attracted the number of diners it deserved. And not for lack of effort, either: the Clarence team at one point added to the kitchen out front, and ran a brilliant but short-lived deli operation during the day
Talking to McShane and Kuhnemann about these days, and you sense the frustration. But that’s in part because it’s packaged with a relief to be in these new premises.
“With the old space you had those restrictions of a 130-year-old building,” McShane says. “You can’t get bigger bits of equipment through the door. To change the hoods is too much.”
“It felt like we were scrapping, just trying to make something happen,” Kuhnemann adds. “It never felt permanent. It always felt like we were just trying to pull something together, and this feels like everything’s been done intentionally for the purpose of being in this restaurant.”
The new Clarence exists in a corner tenancy where Fish Lane crosses Merivale Street. Yes, it’s brand new but Alkot’s design has leant it a charming, lived-in feel with a purposeful use of materials such as ribbed timber, globe pendents, green and white tiled walls, and green upholstered banquettes and seating.
Counter seating is a neat addition, allowing you to get up close and personal with the chefs – something that should suit Clarence particularly well – and McShane’s brother, Ryan McShane (who from day one has been responsible for the restaurant’s cute branding) has contributed a pair of vibrant artworks.
Outside, instead of cars jammed along Stanley Street, it’s pedestrians wandering the strip from Lune at one end of the lane to Julius at the other, or vice versa.
If the old Clarence sometimes felt like a long-term pop-up, the new Clarence feels like it belongs.
The food has had minor changes as well. McShane and Kuhnemann still intend to keep it seasonal and hero producers such as Tommerup’s Dairy Farm and Neighbourhood Farm, but they talk about there being a little more permanence on the menu.
Appetisers and entrees include Nashville-seasoned tropical rock lobster with pickles and white bread, Jerusalem artichokes with a sunflower miso cream and yuzu, and gnocchi served with caviar and a dashi cream.
For mains, there’s wild caught barramundi with dill-pickle butter and carrots, dry-aged duck with witlof and a cumquat yuzu kosho, and a rack of wild-shot venison with blueberry and beetroot.
There’s a couple of mains to share – a half coral trout meuniere, and a five-score grass-fed sirloin – and a three-course prix-fixe menu for $85 per person. There’s also a cold and raw seafood menu that includes yellowfin tuna with peas, grapefruit and ginger; and Hervey Bay scallop with tiger milk, caper and radish.
“Our draft menu was quite seafood heavy and I think we’ve even doubled down on that a little bit,” McShane says. “We’re pushing that cold seafood side a little bit more. We have this amazing access to seafood and that was a way to showcase that.”
Wines are still all Australian, with front-of-house manager Zoe Mahoney managing a list that now runs close to 100 bottles.
“We have some realms we like to work in with the Australian wines,” Mahoney says. “We have some smashable stuff but then we have wines that can really converse well with the food.”
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Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
