Road trip, anyone? Clementine Restaurant is back!
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Well, kinda. Five years after darling of the Yass dining scene, Clementine Restaurant, closed due to COVID, Chef Adam Bantock is back with a series of Clementine-inspired dinners.
As Friday evening falls at the new Clementine Bakery and Two Before Ten site in Murrumbateman’s Fairley Square, the bustling café transforms into a space rich with nostalgia as Chef Adam Bantock hosts Friday Nights at Fairley, a series of pop-up dinners.
Fairley Square in Murrumbateman is home to the joint Clementine Bakery x Two Before Ten project.
It’s a full-circle moment for the partnership, which started in 2013 on the A.Baker project.
“Adam is the chef behind the original Two Before Ten Regional Produce Dinners and the 10 Yards pop-up restaurant,” explains Two Before Ten owner Chris Dennis.
“It’s nice to reconnect with the people that really helped create the Two Before Ten brand on a project that brings together everything we’ve done in the last ten years.”
Clementine Restaurant was opened by culinary power couple Brooke and Adam Bantock in 2015 after a long stint in top-tier international and Canberra hospitality.
Clementine’s Adam and Brooke Bantock
Before helping establish Canberra icons A Baker and Temporada, Adam completed his apprenticeship in London and worked at Coast and the Royal Yacht Club in Sydney, the ‘M at the Fringe’ restaurant in Hong Kong with Michelle Garnaut and Dieci e Mezzo and Two Before Ten in Canberra.
It was Adam’s stint in Hong Kong that inspired his and Brooke’s ‘escape to the country’ with the couple choosing Yass as a stark alternative to the high-density city living they had experienced
For five years, Clementine attracted a steady stream of loyal diners – from Yass and further afield – before Covid drove the team to close the restaurant to focus on their artisan bakery, where everything is made in small batches and by hand, using local ingredients and seasonal produce wherever possible.
That local, seasonal focus will be woven through the five Friday Nights At Fairley pop-up dinners, which kick off tonight with a relaxed a la carte menu that changes weekly. Think dishes like Salad of Serrano ham, heirloom, tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, rocket & balsamic ; Fried zucchini flowers, salsa verde, whipped goat cheese & fried capers; Grilled barramundi, smoked potato, basil and pepperonata; and Passionfruit cheesecake & yoghurt sorbet.
Upcoming dinners include a Middle Easter Feast on 14 March, Italian Night on 21 March and Tapas Night on 28 March.
Bookings can be made via events@clementinebakery.com.au or OpenTable.
