PICTURED: TASMANIAN RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR FICO
Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards INDUSTRY FEATURE
One of Tasmania’s best kept dining experience secrets is well and truly out of the bag, with Van Bone landing significant recognition in one of the country’s premier hospitality awards.
longest running restaurant awards, following two years of disruptions from Covid-19.
For Hardy, who opened Van Bone alongside his fiancée and restaurant manager Laura Stucken and Joe Naldering last February, it was a dream come true after the trio spent four years building their masterpiece at Bream Creek from scratch. All the blood, sweat and tears – along with the fears and uncertainties of forging ahead with an opening during the heights of pandemic lockdowns – were made all the sweeter as Hardy accepted the award in front of some of his role models.
T welve months ago Van Bone chef-owner Tim Hardy felt like a winner simply being nominated as a finalist in Gourmet Traveller’s yearly Restaurant Awards. Fast forward to this year and the increasingly popular venue, tucked away in the picturesque Marion Bay, went one better by landing a national title. Van Bone backed up its nomination as Best New Restaurant at the 2022 awards by being crowned Best Destination Dining at the 2023 finals held in Sydney in late September. The country’s leading chefs and restaurant personalities – including the likes of Neil Perry, Ben Shewry, Shannon Martinez, Andrew McConnell and Brigitte Haffner – gathered for the first in person announcement of the awards, which are Australia’s
“Being nominated, I think that’s an enormous achievement in itself,” Hardy says.
“Once you get to that pointy end, winners or losers, I don’t think it necessarily matters so much. It’s national recognition which is a really big deal and obviously a couple of other restaurants from Tassie in Fico [named Tasmania’s Best Restaurant] and Peppina [finalist in Best New Restaurant category] had a good showing too.
27 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Oct/Nov Edition
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