Australian Restaurants Imitate Overseas Success Stories

Some Australian restaurateurs are looking to French and US favourites for more than just inspiration. Restaurateur Jason Jones is upfront about where he got the idea for his latest restaurant Entrecote, which has just opened in Melbourne's South Yarra. "I've been travelling to Paris for many years and one of my favourite restaurants there is Le Relais de L'Entrecote," he says. The legendary restaurant chain in Paris serves just one dish: steak frites. Diners are offered two servings of the steak, smothered in a pepper sauce, and the French fries are unlimited.

"It opened in 1959 and just serves one dish and I loved it and thought it would work in the Australian market," Jones says. The Australian Entrecote serves up exactly the same menu for a set price of $39, and Jones's team spent eight months trying to replicate Le Relais De L'Entrecote's sauce. "If you search on the internet there's no recipe for the sauce," he says. "It is so well guarded." In a concession to Australian tastes, Entrecote also offers oysters as an entree, a limited bar menu and breakfast options. "I've adapted it to make it a little bit friendlier to the Australian market, so we do serve fish for people who don't eat meat," Jones says. "Their name is trademarked so we are just Entrecote Australia." Jones says he did not contact Le Relais de L'Entrecote before opening his latest restaurant. "It's really just a nod to what they do, we have our own version," he says.

 

Jones is certainly not alone among Australian restaurant and cafe operators in seeking inspiration overseas. Matteo Bruno, owner of The Meatball & Wine Bar, found inspiration in the US before starting his Melbourne chain of restaurants. They echo the New York Meatball Shop chain, with similar menus, fitouts and signs. Bruno says the idea for a restaurant that serves just meatballs came to him in Italy, but he has "definitely" been inspired by The Meatball Shop. "In New York that was one of my favourite spots to go after midnight," he says. "They were always busy but it was less so about the food and more about the environment and atmosphere," he says. Bruno says his chain focuses on "really high quality ingredients" and provenance. "The [Meatball Shop] on the Lower East Side is quite grungy and a very boozy venue but my restaurant on Flinders Lane caters to a fairly different sort of clientele," he says. Bruno did not contact The Meatball Shop before opening and does not see a problem with seeking inspiration from the established business. "In terms of concept and all that, it is widely removed," he says. "In essence it is like saying a pizza shop can be the only one doing pizzas." Ken Burgin, the owner of Profitable Hospitality, a consultancy that advises restaurants and catering groups, says Australian operators replicating successful overseas restaurants "is a bit sad". "It's just a failure of imagination," he says. "It seems like the local Aussie version does the name, pinches the menu, copies the font and all the rest and its just a bit of a pale imitation." For Bruno the more pressing concern is other Australian restaurateurs who have in turn found inspiration in The Meatball & Wine Bar. "There are heaps of meatball restaurants popping up in Sydney now," he says. "The most annoying thing is when people might post photos and say they are at one of my restaurants and they are actually somewhere else, but otherwise I don't think it's a problem." Le Relais de L'Entrecote and The Meatball Shop did not respond to requests for comment.