FOAMS, airs, deconstructions; Linton Smith has no interest in any of it.

“It’s not my thing- it’s not what I do,‘’ chef Smith says. Instead he’s focussing on the classic; indulging Brisbanites as they hug nostalgia to their collective bosoms with his take on a French local.

Bistro Arlette, at the old Miro’s Spanish restaurant site in New Farm opens tomorrow night.

“Blue cheese soufflé with Waldorf salad, duck and mushroom pie with onion puree, crumbed lambs brains, duck a l’orange- classic dishes based on really good produce.’’ is what I want to do.‘’ Smith says.

The bistro, named after his first patron, Arlette, a Gold Coast restaurateur who introduced him to the joys of cooking, is petite, seating around fifty, at linen -clothed, well-spaced tables.

Prices too, are small, with mains priced under $35 and entrées at $17. At the moment, they’ve yet to receive their license, so it’s BYO, but Smith says he’s putting together a compact list with some well-priced French drops he expects to sell by the glass for around $6.

 Once the fickle Christmas period is out of the way, Smith will also be opening for lunch Thursday and Friday with a prixe fixe menu.

Previous owner of Rhubarb Rhubarb in Wooloowin, Smith and partner Sheree, who will oversee the floor at Arlette have spent the last 18 months in Toowoomba and on the northern NSW coast before making the move back to Brisbane. They’ve not been forgotten though with opening night already booked out by old customers.

‘’Simple, honest food that will make people happy,’’ is Smith’s ambition for Arlette.

‘’It’s intended to be a bistro like you’d find in the suburbs of Paris or Lyon or anywhere else.’’

Bistro Arlette

Shop 4

154 Merthyr Rd

Ph 32540788

Open Tues-Fri night

• I feel like eating out tonight.
• I’m a food writer interested in the issue of whether restaurants should insist on  booking deposits.
• I’ve been charged with organising the office Christmas party dinner.

In all three situations, I grab a copy of the good old yellow pages, flick idly through until something takes my fancy then give them a ring to elicit all the details I need.

Not bloody likely.

Like most diners, I  rely on the internet for my food direction; what’s open when, what other people think of it, what sort of prices and food they offer. I don’t have time to spend ringing around nor money to throw away on somewhere I don’t know that could turn out to be dire. I want to arm myself with the knowledge I need to make a good choice (and a quick one).

Yet so many restaurants either have no online presence or even worse; a half-assed one. ”I don’t have time.” they say. or ”I don’t know how to make a website”. Neither are a good excuse. Having a decent website is an investment restaurants can no longer afford not to makea nd there are plenty of ways to do it cheaply and with no programming knowledge. It takes a minimum of time to keep a website updated and it should be part of time invested into the business.

However, there’s no point at all in having a website that’s out of date or doesn’t have the necessary information.  

There have been loads of studies and surveys done on exactly how long someone will stay on a website looking for the info they need, and believe me, it’s not long.

I recently went to a restaurant website that was pages and pages long; from menus and wine lists to chef bios, philosophies, location maps etc, yet nowhere, among these reams of information did they mention when they were actually open. (And when I rang, nothing on the phone message to give me a clue either). If I were looking for somewhere to eat that night, I’d move on to another place that *did* have opening days and hours on their website.

I’m no online expert, but I look at a hell of a lot of restaurant websites and this is what I want to see in the ideal website;

PASS

Opening page; phone number, address; opening times, links to :

(up to date) menu with prices or at least sample menu; location (a map is good), perhaps a chef bio.

Pics are always nice. 

FAIL

Dodgy home-snapped food pics; seriously it’s an art- just as cooking is. Taking good looking pics of food is hard work. Leave them out if you can’t afford professional pics.

Broken links

Old menus eg. Winter menus in summer.

Old events or news. It tells me you don’t update the website-is that lack of care reflected in your kitchen?

Old accolades. It probably doesn’t mean anything to anyone that you won ‘Best restaurant with a garden’ in 1996. Or were awarded 2 stars by the Courier Mail in 2003. In fact, all it does is make you wonder why you’ve had nothing since then and whether the place has gone off. 

Music. Very annoying.

Ditto flashy graphics; eg revolving text or pictures 

Most Facebook webpages. They’re ok for cafes or informal places where you want to connect with the customer in a friendly, casual way but look unprofessional otherwise. Even a wordpress out of the box website (like this one) is better than a facebook page, especially one without any vital info.

As for twitter; just do it. It’s free and it works. And you’ll be in good company; everyone from Neil Perry to Jamie Oliver have recognised the value of it and have a twitter presence. These are businessmen who know what they’re doing.

The bottom line is, it is the rare restaurant indeed who can survive without an online presence-you can hide your head in the sand all you like, but it could well end up costing you your business.

Chef Richard Webb, former chef/owner of Sprout in Auchenflower on Brisbane’s west side has always practised what he preached. Although he’s always preached very quietly. Not too many people would have realised that blue fin tuna is never on his menu, but whiting has always been a permanent feature. Or that a lot of the herbs and fresh produce came from the restaurants permaculture based back garden.

Now, Webb has taken it a step further, with Swampdog, what I believe in Queensland’s (And possibly Australia’s?) all sustainable seafood fish and chippery.

Not only is all the seafood on the menu sustainably sourced, but in the wider picture, Webb has considered food miles, recycling and more. 

On the menu are Watermark crabs from right here in Brisbane, Mooloolaba whiting, local prawns and more from the Northern Trawl fishery ( currently undergoing assesment by the MSC) Sardines are local too. While he tries to source everything as near to the shop as possible, Webb acknowledges that sometimes the more sustainable producers may be further away. 

“If there is a producer like Cone Bay that has made such an effort to reduce feed coversion ratios ( less than 2:1 feed/kg compared to other salmon at 5:1) and address issues like desertification etc. then I think there is just cause to forsake a few miles.” Webb says.   

“There are good things happening in Tassie. The head biologist from Huon Salmon had great things to say about their new feeding hoppers and underwater camera system which reduces overfeeding and associated environmental costs.”

A passionate fisherman himself, Webb says he’ll be handing out samples of the more maligned species like mullet and tailor in an effort to convert the public. He’s also looking into the use of casava-based products for takeaway containers.

The high grade sunflower oil he’s using gets passed on to a local who converts it to diesel.

Whiting, barra and mackeral are all on the menu, along with cones of local school prawns, farmed soft shell crab, sardines, squid and more.

Swampdog opens tomorrow at 186 Vulture St in South Brisbane