The words ‘chic’ and ‘car garage’ have not been familiar friends, until now, thanks to the recent opening of Automata at Sydney’s Old Clare Hotel. The new restaurant, which has opened in the midst of Chippendale’s neighborhood food renaissance marries raw, industrial style with contemporary interior design.
Automata is Head Chef Clayton Wells' first solo restaurant, bringing a movable approach to a frequently changing five-course menu.
Automata is the brainchild of ex-Momofuku Seiobo sous chef Clayton Wells, a man who has popped up in various guises over the past few months, briefly showing off his skills in restaurants across the city from ACME in Rushcutters Bay to LuMi in Pyrmont.
JUST when you think you have a handle on where the Australian dining scene is at, somewhere new opens to challenge your cherished preconceptions and beliefs.
Everything about Automata's ID work seems to suggest that the restaurant serves things like fricasséed nuts and bolts in a sauce of brake fluid, or energon cubes sprinkled with crystallised dilithium, so when food made of plants and animals starts to land on the table it's almost something of a surprise.
The first restaurant in the Old Clare Hotel is a fun, energetic take on fine dining headed by ex-Momofuku Seiobo chef Clayton Wells.
That old aircraft radial engine chandelier and the commissions from Paul Firbank - The Rag and Bone Man.
