With her other hospitality venture Bru Cafe, in Moray Pl, celebrating its second anniversary next week, restaurateur Jacinda Reid is preparing to open Brazen Eating House in Filleul St. The premises have been home to various eating establishments over the years, most recently Bracken.
Ms Reid described the restaurant’s style as tapas-inspired international fusion with a Kiwi twist, the menu designed around inclusivity, connection and bold flavours.
The idea for Brazen came when she was reflecting on hospitality and trying to categorise what hospitality was, while reflecting on how people used to eat with their parents and grandparents when they were young. Food then was put in the middle of the table and everybody helped themselves.
People were now far more educated about what they wanted to put in their bodies and she wanted to create inclusiveness and take
away the polarity of what people were and were not eating, she said.
New Zealand was largely an al-fresco nation where barbecues and pot-luck meals shared with family and friends were popular. How diners constructed a plate at those events was quite different from ordering in a restaurant.
By creating their own flavour combinations, that would also help reduce food waste which was “horrendous” in the hospitality sector, Ms Reid said.
She started in hospitaltiy when she was about 15, doing work experience in a Dunedin restaurant where she would scrub 20kg of potatoes and wash dishes.
She later travelled the world working in hospitality, from the Caledonian Hilton in Edinburgh to sports bars and five-star restaurants. But it did not matter what the style of establishment it was — whether diners were coming in for a bowl of hot chips or a three-course meal — there should not be any difference in how they were treated, she said. It was about greeting people like they were old friends and having “world-class manners”.
She intended to provide an opportunity for those at entry-level to gain experience in hospitality, giving them a taste of all of the various areas in the restaurant.
Describing herself as an eclectic person, Ms Reid said she had also been eclectic with the decor, wanting to create “a super relaxed atmosphere”.
While anxiety levels had been fairly high in the leadup to opening, this week those feelings had changed more towards excitement, she said.
sally.rae@odt.co.nz
