“We for sure don’t want to get pigeonholed as a restaurant,” says Kirsty Marchant co-owner of Alberta’s. Marchant and her partner Ben Ing have been calling their new opening a shop or an atelier, essentially a workshop, and a place for them “to be creative” says Marchant. This semantic discussion around what this new space is perhaps stems from their recent history, hospitality they’ve experienced and where they now find themselves.

Canadian born Ing was head chef of the often cited “best restaurant in the world,” Noma in Copenhagen for over four years. Marchant, a WA-native was their head gardener. Without deep pockets or those of a backer, recreating anything close to Noma is an impossibility. But that’s not the intention here. The duo are self-funding Alberta’s and have done much of the hard yakka on the fit out themselves. While on a personal level there’s mention of being part of an extended Noma family, they don’t dwell on that singular experience; refreshing as often a mere stagiaire position of weeks (essentially work experience) can be parlayed by some chefs for years.

Opening in Busselton, a small coastal town between Perth and Margaret River, has no doubt focused their minds on the hospitality culture into which they’re entering, not from where they’ve come. Their arrival may signal some change in the hospitality fortunes of the town, but they’re savvy and humble enough to know that they need to read the room. Opening on June 2nd they’ll initially be covering mornings from Thursday to Sunday. Firing up their new Modbar coffee setup with Five Senses and serving a rotation of baked goods like maple tartlets, whiskey baba, Gunyulgup Farm citrus bars and Goodies Farm morning buns with sheep milk cheese.

Once they’ve got that morning routine locked down the next step is a Sunday lunch service to bring their 32 seat dining room to the fore. Other days to follow and all communicated through Instagram. It’s a work in progress says Marchant and very much about testing their opening hours and the local market. Dinner service is in hot demand locally and could, she says, be just one night a week or a way of bringing on guest chefs for events or short residencies. “Focus small to start and then build up,” is Ing’s tentative mantra. There’s a feeling that the pair have nothing to prove – refreshing – that they’re happy to see Alberta’s grow organically, tweaking as they go.

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While this isn’t Noma, Marchant and Ing are bringing to bear the lessons they learnt there. When I see Ing in late summer he’s keen to start preserving tomatoes and other produce, and to start producing vinegars, kombuchas, and quick koji cures that add an element of his experience “without raising the price astronomically.” They’ve spent the last year building relationships with producers across the south west. Marchant says, “we could be vegetarian for some weeks, if that’s what’s really good, and we’re not going to put something on that isn’t good or in season.” It’s a parallel with the way that the Noma menu ebbs and flows with the seasons, summer seeing a focus on vegetables and seasonal greens, and colder months being higher season for Scandinavian seafood. Those menus rely upon meticulous research into producers and their methods, and Ing has learnt that lesson.

At Alberta’s you’re likely to see daily menu changes. Marchant says, “we like the idea of the old French way of having a blackboard with what’s on the menu [that day].” While they say they’re not trying to overtly educate people they are trying to “put it out there and say, this is what a small business that has zero to no waste looks like.” This could include just having one main on the menu, she says. “If Ben gets his hands on a pig, which he has, we’ll break down a pig and use it.” Ing elaborates saying that he envisages serving platters of half chicken, or a locally sourced piece of fish, grilling seasonal vegetables on the wood grill that’s a centrepiece of the kitchen. Their influences, he says, are everything from generous Italian eateries to a Swedish canteen staffed by Michelin-standard chefs, to feted restaurant Septime in Paris.

For now, the direction on drinks is BYO, with Ing looking at infusions and juices. “I love Heaps Normal and a few of the Non range have really good potential,” he says. “Coming from Noma, we had a really good juice pairing, so we’ll look at just bottling a few things.”

The message that Alberta’s is a work in progress, not fully formed from opening, comes through in each conversation with Marchant and Ing. In these altered times it’s perhaps the smartest way to operate. To keep an open mind. “We want people to grow with us, and we don’t necessarily want them to tell us how to grow,” says Marchant.  “Maybe with this space we hit a certain capacity and we have a different one that we can do more in, but this is our starting point.”

Alberta’s
3/55 Queen St, Busselton WA 6280
Thur-Sat 7am – 11.30am, Sun 8am – 11.30am
@albertas_busselton

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