Following the opening of Blackwattle recently in Singapore, Clayton Wells looks set to continue his restaurant expansion with the announcement of a new canteen in Sydney. A1 Canteen is a casual all-day venue that will land in Chippendale in early 2018. The venue will be situated on the ground floor of The Old Rum Store on Kensington Street, neighbouring Clayton’s much loved other venue Automata.

A1 Canteen will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will offer take-away options including coffee, pastry and sandwiches.

“I’ve been working on a casual concept for well over a year now. We tested it out last year with auto.lab, and we’ve been waiting for the right space to open something permanent,” says Clayton of his latest dining concept. “Finding a site directly across the road from Automata is a dream. A1 will be much simpler, and more casual than Automata.”

As for A1’s team, current assistant manager at Automata Rachael Trewin has been named A1’s restaurant manager. She’ll be joined by Scott Eddington, who will head up the kitchen alongside Wells.