The team behind Sydney Road band room Stay Gold partner with ex-Lady Carolina Head Chef, Blair Williams, to launch SPITFIRE

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Spitfire kitchen and bar occupies the front half of the Sydney Road band room Stay Gold. This exciting new venue adds to the already popular Stay Gold and provides something unique to live music venues, a considered and quality food offering. To celebrate the launch they are throwing a massive party and everyone is invited.

Stay Gold launched in November 2018 by veteran music promoter Ben Turnbull along with partners Paul Goddard, Jesse Barbera, Noah Honeywill. If you have ever seen The Offspring, Bullet For My Valentine, Deftones, The Used, AFI, Pennywise or Stonesour play in Australia it is most likely because of Ben and his company Destroy All Lines.

Stay Golds 400+ capacity Sydney Road band room has seen local heroes POND, Clowns and many others already rock its stage. Now with the final touches being put in place on the front half of the building they are ready to launch the kitchen and bar. To do so the Stay Gold team have partnered with Head Chef Blair Williams (ex Lady Carolina, Bluebonnet BBQ, Piqueos) to create this unique dining experience.

Ben and the team are no strangers to the hospitality/music venue scene. Opening The Brightside in Brisbane in 2014 they continued expanding in the Fortitude Valley area by acquiring whiskey joint Black Bear Lodge, cocktail bar Barbara, Blutes pub and Lucky Egg fried chicken. But with Spitfire they wanted to elevate the food offering and give the punters something more refined but just as accessible.

“I initially set out to bring people together through live music events and much like any dining experience, it should be about people coming together to have a great time” says Ben.

With Spitfire, Blair has taken inspiration from his cooking past, using Spanish/European, Southern and South American styles and techniques. “It is a real melting pot of flavours, basically a mix all the things I like to cook” he says.

The dishes at Spitfire are welcoming, simply constructed, full of flavour and designed to share. Blair has deliberately edged the menu towards vegetarian and vegan dishes, only offering two meat options. “I wanted the menu to be accessible to all, from families at lunch or the late night after gig crowd”, Blair says.

One thing that has remained a constant in Blairs cooking style is his fascination and mastery of fire. “I have always loved working with fire in the kitchen. I think there is something so comforting about using such a primitive technique” he said. But primitive techniques doesn’t mean unsophisticated flavours. “I use Iron Bark in the wood oven and Red Gum for the charcoal rotisserie. Plus a heap of different fruit woods”,he explains. “It is amazing the depth of flavour you can get from different woods”, Blair finishes.

“​We take a great deal of care to produce these dishes. For example our chicken is brined for 24 hrs, dried for 24 hrs then spit roasted for 1.5 hours and rested for 45 minutes before it arrives at your table” Blair explains.

An exciting point of difference that Spitfire offers is its late night menu. “I’m doing my own version of the street side “Souva”. “It’s gonna be messy, fun, full of flavour and perfect for all those late night music fans spilling out of the band room”, Blair says.

“We have been trading under the radar for the last couple weeks, while we are putting the final touches on the fitout and facade”. “Australian artist Steen Jones will be painting a massive mural that will wrap around the entire facade, it’s gonna be sick!”, says Blair.

A New Zealand native, Blair started his career in some of Adelaide’s best fine dining restaurants including working under Lachlan Colwill at The Manse. ​After moving to Melbourne Blair opened the hugely popular Peruvian/Argentinian restaurant Piqueos ​in 2013, winning the Timeout ‘Hot Talent’ award the same year and earning 14.5/20 in the Good Food Guide. Blair went on to help ​launch Bluebonnet BBQ in 2015 picking up some valuable ‘low and slow’ techniques from Chris Terlikar and then to Lady Carolina where Blair led the kitchen under Creative Director Paul Wilson, receiving 14/20 in Good Food Guide 2017.

Spitfire is now open Wednesday to Sunday 5pm till late.

SPITFIRE LAUNCH PARTY

Friday 12 April, 2019 - Spitfire, Cnr Sydney Road & Union Street, Brunswick
MURAL UNVEILING BY STEEN JONES
6:30PM START
FREE ENTRY