Catch the drift
Serious food and wine in a casual setting is the credo behind Cirrus, a dazzling new addition to Sydney’s hottest hub.
Visitors to Cirrus, a sleek new Sydney restaurant in the emerging waterside precinct of Barangaroo, may be slightly discombobulated on arrival. Suspended from the ceiling is a 1950s ski boat with a timber finish, black leather interior and white steering wheel. The elevated vessel, called Alvin — which recalls a speedboat from an Elvis Presley movie of the time — is a sly joke played by architect and designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb. When imagining this contemporary seafood restaurant, she dismissed hackneyed marine motifs such as anchors, aquariums and fish prints. Instead, she selected a more lateral and whimsical accessory — a vintage boat plucked from eBay. “It’s a cheeky reference to seafood,” she says. The splashy Cirrus is the latest outing for chef Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt, the acclaimed restaurateurs behind a troika of Sydney ventures. Bentley Restaurant + Bar is their awardwinning, fine-dining restaurant in the Sydney CBD; Monopole is a handsome wine bar in Potts Point; while nearby Yellow is their ode to haute vegetarian food. If a design aesthetic connects the three restaurants, all of which were hatched by the Melbourne-based Gomes-McNabb, it’s a moody and industrial one. “We’re sort of dark people, and Pascale is even darker,” says Savage, smiling. So Cirrus, which is luminous, languid and exuberantly lighthearted, makes for a dramatic addition to their empire.“We want it to be fun, friendly and accessible,” says Hildebrandt. Lendlease property group first approached the pair about the restaurant in 2009 and it came to fruition this year. The seafood concept stemmed from the harbourside environs, while the building itself inspired the restaurant’s name. Cirrus occupies the ground floor of the Richard Francis-Jones-designed Anadara building, a residential block whose northern aspect is swathed in a carapace of laser-cut, powder-coated aluminium. The curvilinear building evokes an abstract cloud, or perhaps a pale cockleshell. Its sinuous footprint — while “strangely beautiful”, as Hildebrandt avers — is the antithesis of a symmetrical box. “It was an extremely challenging space to work with,” the designer says, likening the room to an Alvar Aalto vase. The unorthodox interior was home to Noma Australia for its 10-week residency earlier this year, but Gomes-McNabb has completely reanimated it. If anyone could locate the silver lining on this cloud, it was her. As one of the country’s most accomplished hospitality architects, she is known for her resolutely practical approach. “For me, it’s about a reaction to the building and ensuring it works in terms of functionality,” she says. That said, there is plenty of visual interest. A custom-made banquette of timber dowel wraps around the glass-walled perimeter, while the rest of the seating consists of marble- and brass-top tables. The dowels are echoed above, tracing the curve of the ceiling like wooden stalactites. The designer prescribed stainless steel for benches, the L-shaped bar and a wine fridge, but had the material blasted with ball bearings to imbue it with a patina and mitigate rust. Cirrus has an open kitchen, some of which is strategically obscured by a wall of shelving for wine bottles. The same timber encloses the outside dining area, which brings guests even closer to the water’s edge. In terms of the menu, Savage is focusing on seasonal, sustainable and exquisitely flavoured local fish. “It’s a seafood restaurant for the here and now,” says the inventive chef. One of the signature dishes is Northern Territory mud crab served with tarragon and green garlic sauce, at once heart-stoppingly sweet and savoury. For his part, Hildebrandt has assembled a compelling library of 500 mostly white wines. “It’s serious food and wine in a casual setting,” he says, but there are some distinctly recherché elements, including four types of caviar. “It’s a bit of a leap of faith,” adds Hildebrandt, with the din of Barangaroo construction noise rising in the background. “It’s an unproven location, but we truly believe this will be one of the busiest hubs in the city.” Cirrus, 23 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo; (02) 9220 0111; cirrusdining.com.au.