Ace Hotel Sydney has brought together a world class team for Kiln, its wood-fired rooftop restaurant set 18 stories above Surry Hills. The inventive Mitch Orr leads the kitchen as the restaurant’s Chef-Partner, with acclaimed Melbourne-based interior designer Fiona Lynch as the design partner for the space. The ground floor of the hotel — designed by Flack Studio — is anchored by the all-day eatery LOAM, alongside a coffee shop and a Lobby bar showcasing local producers. Mike Bennie, a champion of the Australian drinks scene, is helping to curate the hotel’s beverage menus. The debut of the ground-floor food and beverage venues will coincide with the hotel’s opening in Autumn 2022, while Kiln will follow shortly afterwards.
“Sydney has one of the most dynamic dining scenes in the world. It’s a community we’ve long admired — now we’re thrilled to be a part of it. Mitch and Mike have plotted a one-of-a-kind food and drinks program, just as Fiona’s design of Kiln has created a dining space that’s totally unique to Sydney. We can’t wait for everyone to experience it with us.” — Susan Buckley, Vice President of Food and Beverage, Atelier Ace / Ace Hotel Group
Mitch Orr brings an innovative yet unpretentious approach to cooking. He utilizes strong umami flavours — soy, fish sauce, dashi, dried mushrooms — and draws inspiration from the flavour-rich cuisines of Italy, Japan and Southeast Asia. At Kiln, he’ll harness the open flame, smoke and smolder of the kitchen’s wood-burning grill. The full menu is designed to be shared, and ingredients will follow the seasons and be sustainably sourced.
Kiln’s glass-walled dining room offers panoramic views of the neighborhood, and features two spacious terraces with fully retractable ceilings. The restaurant’s name is an homage to Ace Hotel Sydney’s previous history as the Tyne House brick factory, which was built above one of Australia’s first ceramic kilns. Kiln will be open nightly for dinner service, and on weekends for brunch.
“Cooking with fire is the most elemental part of cooking, and something every chef loves doing, whether on a hibachi grill in your garden or on a live fire grill that’s the centrepiece of the restaurant. You can do so much more than just grill on a fire – char and smoke will play a big part in the menu, whether in the building of rich, umami sauces, or to lightly touch proteins and vegetables left to cook in the residual heat of the grill. The menu will be structured around sharing — heavy on snacks to start, before moving into a raw section, and then the larger vegetable and protein-led dishes — all with lots of bright acidity to finish the dish, which is exactly the way you want to eat in the open space.” — Mitch Orr, Chef-Partner, Kiln
Fiona Lynch is an award-winning interior designer based in Melbourne, who launched her independent studio, Fiona Lynch Office, in 2013. Wielding a fine arts background, Fiona is known for her work’s nuanced blend of raw materials and refined touches, with a focus on local craftsmanship and custom furniture and lighting.
For Kiln’s dining room, Atelier Ace tasked Fiona with making the space feel distinctly Australian. For inspiration, she looked to legendary Italian-Australian architect Enrico Taglietti and his seminal work in the 1970s. From there she enlisted the help of talented Australian makers and artists – such as Studio Henry Wilson for lighting – and sourced a wide palette of sustainable local materials, including Balmoral green and Harlequin granite, Huon pine and stringybark eucalyptus. To soften the dining room’s hard surfaces and generate a warm, nostalgic feel, Fiona collaborated with Spacecraft Studio to create a custom painted linen using a pigment made from materials found during the excavation of the property’s build site. This linen, used as drapes adorning Kiln’s walls, further roots the restaurant in both its native Australia and its home in Surry Hills.
“The space itself was a very inspiring place to start – we leaned into the fact that the rooftop is in dialogue with the city, keeping guests in connection with the location. The vastness of the space prompted us to create multiple zones to allow for different experiences and moods throughout. From my first conversation with Atelier Ace, they very much wanted the Sydney property to feel local and to have a fully Australian context. This was a perfect fit for my priorities and proclivities too, so I’ve made sure that natural Australian materials and makers are highlighted – and that everything has been sourced locally. The palette came together quite organically to reflect the Australian landscape in a beautiful nostalgic way that is reminiscent of ’70s Australia, with muted earth tones that feel inviting and familiar.” — Fiona Lynch, Interior Designer, Kiln
On the ground floor, designed by Flack Studio, LOAM – a sister location to the restaurant at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles – will serve a relaxed, all-day menu of local and regional seasonal produce, and sustainable meats and seafood. LOAM will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. The coffee shop features Sydney’s own Mecca Coffee, as well as draft wine. Continuing a longstanding Ace Hotel tradition, the Lobby aims to be a welcoming community hub for locals and travelers alike. The bar menu will offer wines by the glass, craft beers and cocktails in addition to snacks and shareable small plates. The Lobby will also regularly feature open-to-all arts and cultural programming.
Mike Bennie is a connoisseur of all things brewed, distilled and fermented. He is co-founder and partner in the landmark P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants, co-founder of the Drink Easy Awards and is a prolific wine and drinks writer. At Ace Hotel Sydney he will bring his extensive experience to the curation of opening day drinks menus for each of the hotel’s four food and beverage venues. Mike also has plans to collaborate on beverage-centric events.
“I’m stoked to have the opportunity to create a drinks program that’s truly reflective of the current state of Australian drinks, with a sense of fun and wonderment that engenders a sense of community around the hotel and its spaces – and is as inclusive as the hotel itself. I’m very privileged to have access to so many incredible producers, small runs of drinks and have made a commitment to unearthing new and exciting things that will form a part of the ever-changing menus at Ace Hotel Sydney.” — Mike Bennie, Drinks Consultant, Ace Hotel Sydney
Reservations beginning May 1st, 2022are available for booking at https://acehotel.com/sydney, with high season rates starting at $359 AUS / $290 USD.
Ace Hotel Sydney is developed in partnership with Golden Age Group.
Address: 47/53 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney NSW 2000
Website: www.acehotel.com/sydney