Dining on sand a WA first
As milestones go, a small dinner party on the beach at North Fremantle this week passed all but unnoticed.
But the diners were making history — the first people in WA to be served a meal with wine on a beach as paying guests of a restaurant.
“The significance of this moment was not lost on anybody,” Salt On The Beach restaurant owner Ian Hutchinson said.
“It’s exciting. I even had staff come in on their day off, just to be a part of this.
“This would have been impossible even a couple of years ago.”
Mr Hutchinson was full of praise for the role the City of Fremantle played in the approvals process.
“The council under the leadership of mayor Brad Pettitt has been amazing,” he said.
“They encouraged us all the way.”
It is understood that the City of Fremantle sought submissions from Salt On The Beach and even went as far as to assist the restaurant in the framing of application documents for their beach-dining application.
The restaurant, which overlooks the beach in North Fremantle, has been granted a 70sqm slice of Port Beach with permission for up to 70 people to dine with the sand between their toes at any one time.
A trial of eight dinners over the summer holidays has been agreed but the mayor and the restaurant owner confirmed they fully expected this summer’s trial to expand into regular dinner services on the beach.
Dr Pettitt said the council went out of its way to keep compliance and red tape to a minimum.
“This is what we should be (doing with our beaches,” he said.
“We were keen to make this happen. When you go to Europe, you see how the beaches are activated over the summer with bars and restaurants.
“It’s a great environment. Our beaches should not be locked away. If the restaurant wanted to construct a semi-permanent boardwalk on the beach to accommodate their beach dining room, we would certainly look at it.
“Economic activity and activation of spaces is important for a livable city.
“We are very proactive in this area.”
Guests at Thursday evening’s $125 a head dinner were greeted with champagne before sitting down to a meal of oysters, prawns with garlic mayo, seafood laksa, crayfish curry with coconut rice, swordfish teriyaki and whole baked fish followed by creme (brulee and strawberries and cream.
