LE REBELLE
Beaufort’s French Revolution
It's not all bad news for Beaufort Street.
With the recent slew of closures of long-held and much-loved establishments along Beaufort, it's easy to feel gloomy about the future of one of Perth's liveliest dining and entertainment strips. Since the beginning of the year, we've seen the boards go up at stalwarts like Cantina 663, Clarences Wine Bar, and Five Bar – to name a few. The local press have widely promulgated this malaise, but no-one can point to a root cause; is it astronomical rents? The changing habits of Perth's restaurant-goers? The rise of the meth-zombies? Donald Trump? Who can say.
In the midst of this quiet furore an elegant yet energetic venue has opened on Beaufort. Le Rebelle takes the place of Circa, once a self-styled "continental bistro" that sat across the road from the Astor Theatre. The new venue keeps the bistro element but swings the dial heavily towards France, with a modern European flair – and it's a lot of fun. But what else would you expect from wife and husband owners Sarah and Liam Atkinson, whose collective resume includes Ku De Ta, Print Hall, Lallah Rookh and David Coomer's much-celebrated Star Anise. Liam, who runs Le Rebelle's kitchen, has explained that despite seeing many of his colleagues over the years pack their bags to find their fortunes over east, he's remained committed to Perth's hospitality scene. For this, we must be extremely grateful.
The dining room, I'm told, has been given a facelift following its former occupation – the ornate handcrafted bar from Circa has been retained – and is split into three sections. There's a drop-in-for-a-drink area at the front, a proper dining room on the mezzanine up the back, and in the middle, a long tiled table with room for 10. Gather your friends and hunker down for an evening. Soft ochre walls offset dark timber furniture and leather banquettes. Wall ornamentation consists of isolated shelves lined with wine bottles. Low mood lighting confirms French bistro-cum-wine bar status.
“God bless the French…”
Unsurprisingly, then, the food leans heavily on bistro classics with a bit of a twist. Blue manna crab toast with lemon pickle and mayo ($10) is an exciting prospect on any menu. Two fingers of crustless white bread came out, heaped with translucent crab flesh. The melt-in-your-mouth meat was buttery soft and spanking with fresh oceanic flavours. The citrus mayo and pickle lent a subtle sharpness to round out the richness of the crab. The bread tasted like it was soaked in butter. God bless the French and their love affair with the yellow stuff. If toast always tasted this good I'd be in real trouble.
Duck liver parfait ($16) was a pretty plate; deconstructed as a cluster of separate quenelles of parfait, citrus glaze and powerful truffle butter, and served with two thick slices of brioche. It's a clever presentation which circumvents the unfortunate "pot of grey gloop" styling of many iterations of this classic snack. Le Rebelle's parfait was luscious and creamy, coating the inside of your mouth. Spread the parfait, the glaze and a smear of truffle butter on the bread and you've got a veritable flavour explosion. More bread would have been helpful – I'm ashamed to admit I ended up forking the parfait directly into my mouth. Actually, I’m not ashamed. You would do the same.
“…a veritable flavour explosion.”
Sitting towards the heavier end of the menu is the glazed Wagin duck with frites and béarnaise sauce ($38) – chef Atkinson's take on the staple steak frites. Here, it's a ripper. A plump duck breast, skin crisp and charred, arrives sliced, revealing a beautifully rare middle. It's teamed with an actual mountain of frites, generously coated with Old Bay seasoning – okay, perhaps not super traditional, but damn tasty. The chips, smoky with paprika from the seasoning, take on new life when doused in the creamy, tangy béarnaise, which arrives in a silver gravy boat to be applied by guests at the table. It's clever, it’s generous, it’s excellent drinking food. We paired this dish against ricotta gnocchi ($32), with truffle, peas and velouté. By comparison, the flavours of this plate were slightly muted. The gnocchi was fine – ricotta makes for a lighter pasta than traditional potato – and each little pillow was crisped by the heat of the pan. However, the veloute didn't wow and the peas were largely unadorned. The dish looked good and there was nothing inherently wrong with it – it just lacked a bit of that X-factor that everything else seemed to have. Gnocchi is such a ubiquitous dish these days – you really need something a little left of field to make yours standout. Chef Atkinson has thrown the ball but it's yet to curve.
The drinks list is concise, especially for non-wine drinkers, but the vino options have been thoughtfully put together (and there's a reserve list for cash splashing). The list is quite well-travelled, with New World offerings alongside Old World favourites. We opted for a very drinkable Côtes du Rhône and it went down a treat. Service, led by front-of-house Atkinson, was competent; the only minor gripe was what felt like a strangely lengthy wait between the toast and the parfait being cleared from the table, and the duck frites and gnocchi being brought out. However, the venue had barely been open a week - it’s totally forgivable.
“…a huge step in the right direction.”
If you visit Le Rebelle, prepare for a bit of atmosphere. The Atkinsons have stated that they’ve deliberately kept things intimate to encourage a bit of liveliness; it's not quite a shared table situation but it's not far off. It's a lot of fun, though – the restaurant's catchphrase of sorts – "Romantica!" – is lettered onto plates and coasters, and if they were to start bringing out little baskets of sliced baguette to each table when you sat down, you'd pretty much be in France. Le Rebelle may not single-handedly solve the Beaufort Street issue extraordinaire, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.