Once collected purely as fish bait, Goolwa’s pipis are now valued for their eating quality and are the basis for a business that ships them around the country. It is this company that redeveloped what is now the Kuti Shack and found co-owners Vanessa Button (manager) and Brendan Roach (chef) to take on the lease.

During summer, Kuti does a roaring trade, sending out fish and chips and assorted ice creams. Over winter, the setting has a wilder, more isolated appeal. The local Ngarrindjeri people call pipis/cockles “kuti” and they are one constant on a seafood-based menu, perhaps tossed in their butter-enriched-juices with saltbush and garlic.

Other smaller options might include a sausage roll filled with minced carp and partnered with celeriac remoulade and quince chutney or wedges of kingfish sashimi, laid out like spokes on a wheel, with edamame, blobs of aioli and a dried chilli dust. Larger serves of crumbed mullet with pea puree, blue swimmer crab pasta and yellow prawn curry continue the theme.

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