Bastille Day

Liberté. Égalité. Fraternité. Butter.

Every July, France celebrates Bastille Day. We thought we'd celebrate the part where everybody sits down afterwards and has something excellent to eat.

Bastille Day lasts one day. We’re making a week of it.

From Wednesday 15 until Sunday 19 July, Chef Jeff Schroeter is serving a special three-course prix fixe table d'hôte menu celebrating the dishes that made French brasseries famous and the reason butter still wakes up feeling quietly confident.

That's the lovely thing about a table d'hôte. Nobody is told what to order. Each course offers a choice, so you simply follow your appetite wherever it decides to march.

Meet this year's revolutionaries before you arrive.

The chicken liver pâté has been quietly recruiting loyal followers. The escargots have barricaded themselves inside a cocotte with enough garlic butter to negotiate favourable terms. The duck has turned up wearing orange because, frankly, it enjoys making an entrance. The wagyu has formed a rather powerful alliance with truffle and refuses to surrender.

The lavender crème brûlée arrives last, pretending it hasn’t spent centuries convincing perfectly respectable people to smash things with spoons.

Naturally, the wine refused to stay out of the argument. Our sommelier has assembled four liquid allegiances. Some remain gloriously French. Others ask a wonderfully cheeky question... what happens when Australian winemakers fall shamelessly in love with French cooking?

Choose from four optional pairings. You can tour France one glass at a time, explore a little French-Australian romance, or happily refuse to pick sides.

Between courses, keep an eye out for four original Henri de Linares Hermès silk carrés, our French raconteurs hiding in plain sight on the walls. The vintage Hermès Papillon bow ties worn by our team have also joined the uprising, and frankly, they seem to know more than they’re letting on.

The carrés deny any involvement. The bow ties insist they improve the wine service. We're still gathering evidence. The Champagne appears entirely convinced.

Three courses are $90 per person, available exclusively throughout Bastille Week. As each Bastille menu is prepared to order, reservations are prepaid when booked.

The only thing left to decide is whose side you're on. France? Australia? Duck? Escargot?