COUNTRY CLASSICS
Country hospitality is back on the menu at Mount Nathan’s The Historic Rivermill with the relaunch of its cafe, writes Sally Coates
GET a taste of the country without having to drive country miles at a Mount Nathan favourite returning to its roots.
The Historic Rivermill was first opened 108 years ago, the largest of three mills operating on the Coomera River where arrowroot was milled.
In more recent history, there have been a few owners in relatively quick succession who all took the property in different directions.
The previous owner turned the property into a tourist-bus destination before putting it on the market late last year. The new owner is keen to get the Historic Rivermill back to its origins by reopening the Rivermill cafe and enlisting the help of husband and wife team chef Wade Heagney (pictured) and Kylie.
“Basically I started here four weeks ago, cleaning up the place and renovating to get it open,” Wade says.
“The gentleman who owns it asked me to come out and look at the restaurant, which hadn’t been operating. I looked at the place and fell in love with it.
“It is so beautiful, but it’s still got a lot of work to be done — we’ve got big plans for this place. It needs to be restored to its former glory.”
The property itself is unique for the Gold Coast, with acres of land bordering on the Coomera River and plenty of friendly fauna including alpacas, deer, chickens, goats, a pig and river turtles.
It’s a hint of the hinterland and Wade knew, especially after the previous owner’s tourist focus, that he needed to reflect those country community values in the restaurant.
“With the previous owner turning it into a tour-bus destination the locals weren’t happy because they felt pushed out of the way,” he says. “So now I plan to cater directly to the locals. “The first thing you realise as a chef is you need to meet your market, so I agonised a little bit over the menu itself and I realised people out here don’t want fine dining, they want wholesome food that’s not too fancy.
“With that in mind I’ve done standard favourites, but tried to take it up a couple of levels, making sure everything’s made at home. I’ve put in a little extra so people really say ‘wow’.”
The menu is packed with familiar flavours, such as the egg your way with bacon, housemade tomato jam and doorstop toast, and the milled pancakes — try the standard stack with maple syrup, whipped butter and ice cream, the lemon myrtle stack with lemon curd and ice cream or go all out with the maple and bacon stack.
There’s also pumpkin and corn frittata, bacon or avo eggs benedict, and vanilla bean and fig stuffed French toast, plus a kids’ menu.
Lunch follows a similar theme, sectioned off into pasta, salads, burgers and stand-alone dishes including battered barramundi, slow-cooked beef short ribs, almond milled parmy, a cob loaf and vegetable pakoras.
While there is plenty of variety, the concise selection is so dishes can be made fresh – the menu may be old school, but dietary requirements are catered for.
The cafe is open Wednesday to Sunday from 6am to 5pm. While the kitchen closes at 3pm each day, you can still savour coffee and cake in the afternoon serenity of the country.
The Historic Rivermill, 950 Beaudesert-Nerang Rd, Mount Nathan