Hot off the grill

With a fit-out by Sydney’s Landini Associates, the 1400sq metre space is now unrecognisable thanks to the rich and natural design featuring timber, leather, marble and exposed pillars and ceilings “We’re very pleased with the fact we’ve been able to go through this change over the last two-and-a-half years,” says Peer Norsell, General Manager of Hilton Adelaide. “We’re very pleased and couldn’t have wished for a better outcome really.” Coal Cellar + Grill is not a fine dining restaurant, it’s not the Grange, rather the menu focuses on local produce cooked on the grill including Angus pure-bred tomahawk steak, Parigna Farm lamb cutlets and Loxton free range pork cutlets, as well as a $25 express lunch menu. The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. “While we enjoyed having Grange when we had it, that’s a very specialised cuisine to work in ­ fine dining,” says Norsell. “It’s a limited product so to speak. We needed something that was relevant to a much broader audience. We have done fine dining in the past, and if that works really well it’s a great product to have. It’s very specialised and we didn’t want to be that specialised. We wanted to have something that was fun, vibrant and something that excited people every day, not just for special occasions. “It’s [Coal] not meant to be expensive or exclusive. It’s meant to be a great quality experience for pretty much anyone’s budget. That’s something that’s really important for us, to be accessible to anyone. You don’t have to call your bank manager to see if you can go out for dinner.” Coal Cellar + Grill features a chef’s table, three private dining rooms and a choice of more than 500 wine labels, which are predominately South Australian. In regards to future Hilton restaurants and bars, Norsell says the ground floor is now completed. “Ground floor is done. We’ll be doing some soft refurbs on the catering floor for our meeting space over the next couple of years but they will just be soft refurbs they won’t be complete renovations, such as what we’ve done on the ground floor.” coalcellarandgrill.com.au