drink
Rokeby goes the full Parisian
Bar Amelie opened and has asserted itself as an instant hit, with grateful wine and food lovers flocking to its sophisticated yet relaxed take on bar life done right. WORDS | Gail Williams
A LOCAL BAR with elegant feminine cocktails served in Riedel glassware, a doggy in the window and the option of chatting with famous visiting stars who treat the joint as their second home? If that’s the wish list of Subi Ladies who Lunch (A-Lot), then they need wish no longer. Those quirky draw cards are already attracting loads of females – and their most welcome blokes – to Bar Amelie, the new Rokeby Road venue, which was previously home to a cheeky boy called Bistro Felix. And there’s more – watch out 32
SUBIACO: EAT SHOP LIVE
for High Teas, oyster shucking by Jerry Fraser, a coffee window, paella nights and a return to the good old fashioned Sunday session with live acoustic music. Bar Amelie – named after the smash hit French comedy Amelie – is the brainchild of business partners, Kat Dehavilland and Kim Knight, who, when it comes to hospitality, know how to please a woman. Like the film’s central character, Amelie, their mission is simple – to make others happy. “Creating connections is what we want our bar to be about,” says
Dehavilland, who has had hospitality adventures in bars all around the world and was previously State Manager for Treasury Wine Estates, one of the world’s largest wine companies. Customers, it appears, are loving their suburb’s departure from masculine interiors and blokey barstools as they luxuriate in the teal blue and forest green colour scheme with touches of pink. They’re loving the delicate, spidery images of butterflies and flowers on the walls. And they’re loving Pepper – Knight’s border collie – who was an ever
