ATLANTIC REEL

The Atlantic Restaurant:

Crown Entertainment Complex
(03) 8623 9615 or www.theatlantic.com.au

The Atlantic restaurant at Crown is almost here. The big fish will surface next week on March 14th. From then on, you’ll be able to sample chef Donovan Cooke’s seafood-heavy menu, which, according to Con Andronis, co-owner of the The Atlantic, will be about ‘seafood in its purest form’. Donovan talents have been singled out by Michael Roux and Marco Pierre White, have taken him around the world including a highly acclaimed stint as the chef de cuisine at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and have been awarded some big French awards venue can’t pronounce. Suffice to say — and his food proves it — he’s a bloody good chef. Donovan has returned to Melbourne (the Yorkshire-born Cooke was here in 1999 co-creating Est Est Est) to head up the Atlantic Group’s food offerings, and become executive chef and co-owner of The Atlantic. Atlantic will hold 300 diners, and get a little sexy in The Den, the Atlantic’s basement club. It’s designed by Blackmilk Interior Design, who has had a hand in the Atlantic Group’s function venues on Central Pier in Melbourne’s Docklands. It’s also co-owned by Tony Schiavello, whose Schiavello group seems to be able to do anything and everything nowadays. Here are a few initial renderings from Blackmilk of the design, follow venue to keep up to date on the progress of Atlantic, and some real images.