So long, farewell

Change is afoot. It’s not so much the death of fine dining as a cosmic shift. Starched tablecloths and stiff service do not a fine-diner make, but this year has seen some of the longstanding restaurants that traded in the more traditional trappings of dining close doors. What’s particularly striking about 2019 is how many of them had clocked up 10, 15 or even 20 years – seminal venues that were standard bearers of Australian dining from the early 2000s or even earlier. Among them was a smattering of ambitious restaurants from younger chefs and operators that may not have run as long, but whose