Which is the best restaurant in your city?
Last year, for my wife’s birthday, we went to Firedoor in Surry Hills for lunch.
It was expensive. But it was also a special occasion, and it turned out to be a memorable meal. The food was excellent, the atmosphere relaxed and warm, and the service managed that difficult balance of being attentive without ever becoming intrusive.
What makes Firedoor distinctive, though, is its governing idea. Everything is cooked over fire. There is something wonderful about that. Sydney is a modern, technologically sophisticated city, yet one of its most interesting restaurants is built around one of humanity’s oldest technologies. Fire. Wood. Heat. Time. Judgement.
And rather than being a limitation, that simplicity seems to create possibilities. Different woods produce different flavours. Different ingredients respond differently to flame, smoke and heat. The method is simple, but what can be done with it is remarkably varied.
Perhaps that is part of what makes Firedoor extraordinary. It is not simply a restaurant serving very good food. It has an idea at its centre. Everything flows from one basic commitment.
We often assume that creativity comes from having more options, more tools and more possibilities. But sometimes the opposite is true. A clear limitation can sharpen creativity. Once you decide that everything must pass through fire, the question becomes: What can fire do? As it turns out, quite a lot.
I have no idea if Firedoor is the best restaurant in Sydney. I don’t know how you settle a question like that. But for a special birthday lunch, with wonderful food, good atmosphere, thoughtful service and an ancient technology turned into something remarkably creative, it was hard to beat.
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