Regular visitors to King Street will have noticed that the old Bien Fine Food cafe (formerly Mezzonine) has been transformed into the lighter and brighter Etro Café Bistro.
Regular visitors to King Street will have noticed that the old Bien Fine Food cafe (formerly Mezzonine) has been transformed into the lighter and brighter Etro Café Bistro. It opened on December 19 after new owners Emma Beechey and Patrick Panier undertook some renovations.
“We’ve painted the outside area of the windows white, before it was charcoal, and we’ve done some work inside,” Ms Beechey says.
“We’ve now got more room and it’s a mandarin colour and we’ve added about 45 halogen lights; before there were hardly any. It’s now much brighter.”
Mr Panier is a chef by trade, and being a Frenchman there is some influence from his mother country on the menu.
“We are a cafe so we have cakes and biscuits and coffee but our lunch and dinner menu, we are open Friday nights, and there are more hearty meals. Patrick has a tendency for dishes that are rustic and elegant,” Ms Beechey says.
“There is some French influence. We have beef bourguignon, which is proving popular with some of the sporting groups coming through, and we have a duck liver pate that he makes from scratch.”
The couple moved to Perth three years ago and have been waiting for the right site to set up a cafe.
And Ms Beechey believes Etro Café Bistro has what it takes to be a success.
“We will have a great food product that will be consistent and I have a passion for customer service and so far it’s been great. We really want to be a local destination,” she says.
There are plans for the upstairs roof area to be used as a function venue and roofing options are currently being assessed.
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Nearby to Etro, renovations are under way at the Belgian Beer Café. A space adjoining the pub is being fitted out to extend the restaurant area but will also allow the venue to cater to private functions, according to Australian Leisure and Hospitality regional manager Allan Jefferies.
“We will be able to use it as a private dining room because it’s in an alcove and we can curtain it off,” Mr Jefferies says.
The renovations should be completed in three weeks.
Mr Jefferies also told WA Business News his tenure with ALH will cease at the end of June.
He says the decision was a mutual one between him and ALH’s new owners, Woolworths.
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East Perth’s Chateau Commodore Hotel, on the corner of Hay Street and Victoria Avenue, is undergoing something of a transformation. In the middle of the year there will be a new cafe restaurant, and later this year a nightclub will open. It’s all part of the hotel’s new manager Tony Pallotta’s plans to cater to the expanding East Perth corporate and residential market.
“We are opening the cafe and we’ll have a couple of new trends that I can’t talk about right now but we will be at the forefront,” Mr Pallotta says.
“We will open it at the end of June or early July when we relaunch the property.
“We will put a late-night bar at the back of the property because we want to tap in to the East Perth market and have a place for people to go after hours.”
The hotel will also sponsor the upcoming Tutti a Tavola event to be held at Government House ballroom on February 25. Five traditional Italian chefs will fly to Perth to cook up traditional Italian fare, four courses in all.
