Tasteful restoration

Visit ORANGE to sample the DYNAMIC FOOD and WINE SCENE thriving within its HERITAGE streets and LANDSCAPE.

WALKING DOWN THE STREET IN ORANGE is a somewhat dangerous proposition, bound as you are to stumble across an old heritage building crying out to be turned into a sourdough bakery or coffee shop and divesting you of your life savings in the process. Me? I’ve got my eye on the old cinema and imagine restoring it to its former glory with the contemporary twist of a cold-climate wine bar. And I’d be in good company.

Ever since vines were planted on the volcanic slopes of nearby Mt Canobolas in the 1980s, Orange has been making a name for itself as a boutique wine region, complementing its long-established reputation as the food bowl of NSW; European settlers took advantage of its fertile soil to plant abundant fruit orchards in the 19th century. The Central West city has many other attributes: elegant Edwardian architecture, wide streets and deciduous trees whose riotous autumn leaves lend Orange the moniker ‘City of Colour’ (the name itself was a tribute to the Prince of Orange, later to become King of Holland); it’s also the birthplace of Banjo Paterson. And until five years ago it was, says Orange City Council tourism manager Glenn Mickle, “a sleepy town”. But things have changed in Orange. An influx of tree changers and returning residents with energy, vision and blue-sky ideas began shaking up the city’s hospitality landscape with dynamic new offerings tucked into its heritage streetscape, redefining Orange as a foodie destination not to be missed. “Each time one of them comes to town, it gives the rest more momentum,” says Glenn. “It just raises the bar. When you’ve got a couple of hatted restaurants in town, the pub has to improve its meals.”

We don’t make it to Orange’s two hatted restaurants, Lolli Redini and Charred Kitchen & Bar (the latter has just been anointed for the first time when we visit), but instead make a beeline for the newly opened Schoolhouse Restaurant in the historic Union Bank building, which first opened its doors in 1858 as Orange’s first bank. (This came 12 years after the settlement was proclaimed a village and seven years after Australia’s gold rush began when a significant deposit was discovered near Orange.) The building later became home to the Kinross Wolaroi School, a well-regarded boarding school that also served as Orange’s original art school – a fact reflected in the naming of The Arthouse Bar & Courtyard, where my partner and I sip on