The Mantle Kailis Fish Market Cafe Relaunched as a Contemporary Seafood Market
T
he Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour stalwart reopened with a new 80s-inspired look, dedicated raw bar and focus on underutilised fish and seafood. George Kailis was 12 when he first pulled on the gumboots at Kailis Fish Market Cafe, the restaurant his father Victor opened at Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour in December 1986. “I only started [working] so young because it was the only way that I could see my dad,” he says. “He worked so much.” Last September, Kailis wrote the restaurant’s next chapter when it unveiled the new, updated Kailis Fish Market Cafe with dedicated fry, raw bar and barbecue sections together with bar and sweet sections. “Times have changed as has the local hospitality scene,” says Kailis. “Kailis Freo is aging so it’s time to go to town on it. I
36
Chippy Chat & Fast Food Magazine • September 2020
36
Chippy Chat & Fast Food Magazine • August 2020
love the business like a child so this is a very passionate project for me. We will be totally embracing the simplicity of who we are as a fish and chippery in a market style setting.” Encouragingly, the new cafe will join the growing number of venues shining a light on traditionally underused, value-formoney species such as mullet, herring, and garfish. The plan, according to Kailis, is to buy a market bin of something interesting each morning at market and serve it as a lunch special until sold out. Renowned seafood chef Peter Manifis will oversee the food at the new Kailis Fish Market Cafe – promising news for those that remember Manifis’s South Perth seafood restaurant, InContro. Whiting, whitebait, sardines and fish wings – a once-discarded off-cut that’s now found favour among eaters and chefs – are among the things that will go into the fryer; prawns and lobsters will get a star turn on the barbecue; the raw bar will serve oysters, crudos, poke bowls and
Chippy Chat & Fast Food Magazine • September 2020
36
