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Will St Leederville: Acclaimed Mama San Bali restaurateur Will Meyrick opens new WA restaurant

In April last year Will Meyrick, renowned chef and owner of Bali’s most celebrated restaurants, was peddling through Kings Park on one of the only possessions he brought with him when he and his family packed up their lives in a matter of hours and fled to Perth. He didn’t have an Australian driver’s licence, having left the country 20 years earlier with no plan to return, so the 45-year-old got to know his new home via pushbike as Perth was plunged into the first of its lockdowns. “I’ve got my saddlebags on, I’m biking through Kings Park, I’m thinking ‘how the f... did I get here,’” he laughs during a recent chat with STM. COVID-19 got him here, and with him is his Indonesian wife Wati and their children, Cinta, 19, Mischa, 12, and Caleb, 11. And not only have they adjusted to their new life, they are putting down roots. After 18 months of “sitting and watching and waiting” — which included an insightful stint working at Lontara restaurant at Samphire Rottnest — Meyrick is preparing to open his first Perth bar and restaurant. Leederville venue Will St, created in partnership with the Bali Mandira Group, will open next month in the space vacated by La Vida Urbana. The 120-seat bar and restaurant will be a reflection of Meyrick’s fascinating global food journey so far — with nods to the migratory food culture of India’s Nagaland tribes, the Northern African spice routes, Asian recipes passed down between generations and Australia’s Indigenous and modern cuisine. Designed by Paul Lim of Mata Studio the restaurant will be free-flowing, earthy and warm, featuring a fireplace within a waiting lounge, sandstone walls, timber floors and a rust-flecked porcelain tile bar. Meyrick will be joined in the kitchen by Tim Bartholomew, head chef and business partner at two of his Bali restaurants, while former Bread in Common bar manager Audrey Ruckhaber will be front of house. Meyrick might be new to the State but thousands of West Australians are familiar with his food, having dined at his hugely popular restaurants in Bali, which include Sarong and Mama San, in pre-pandemic times. While Mama San remains open (with profits going back to the staff who work there) Meyrick has shuttered his other Bali restaurants as the Delta variant of COVID-19 ravages Indonesia. Barely a week goes by without his wife receiving word that a friend or family member has been struck down by COVID and the family is extremely grateful to be safe in WA. And while he sees the relocation to Perth as a natural progression, it was one driven by strategy. After 20 years in Asia, and having lived through earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and terror threats, Meyrick felt a growing sense in recent years that his family’s luck — and their time in Bali — was running out. “I thought, something’s gotta give,” he says. “I just felt that the rug can get pulled from under you at any time. So fortunately (COVID) didn't come as a shock because it was just another disaster.” Meyrick had never lived in Perth, but made his mark on the Australian restaurant scene in Sydney at Longrain and Jimmy Liks, the latter of which he part owned. But in the years leading up to COVID-19 the family strengthened their connection to Western Australia; Meyrick secured his Australian residency, daughter Cinta relocated to Perth to attend boarding school and Meyrick and his wife bought a home in Fremantle. All of these decisions meant that when the next disaster did strike, as Meyrick had anticipated it would, they had a Plan B. Meyrick got a taste of that disaster earlier than most; he was in Kathmandu travelling and researching for his YouTube channel when the pandemic broke out in India. “I saw it on a global level. We were seeing people scrambling at the airports and our flights were getting changed,” he recalls. He flew out of India on March 14 and upon arriving in Bali immediately closed his five restaurants. “My wife and I looked at each other and said ‘what are we going to do?’ But that’s why we had Perth. That’s why I put all of this in place. “So we closed everything on the Friday, then on the Sunday morning (March 22) we were on the next flight.” While they were fortunate to have their plan B that didn’t mean it wasn’t heartbreaking to walk away from his successful businesses, and the only home his wife and kids had ever known. “It was tough. You’ve got five businesses just sitting there, there’s nothing to liquidate, I can’t sell them,” he says. So, upon arriving in Perth, he had to get to work. It turned out he would swap one island for another when he was appointed head chef of Lontara restaurant at the Prendiville family’s Samphire Rottnest resort. This wasn’t just any chef gig. Rotto was finally getting fancy and expectations were high. Lontara was a raging success, but as the weather warmed up and half of Perth was clamouring for a table, it was also frantically busy. “To sit there in the line at Rotto and cook ... that was humbling. It was so busy ... I was literally on the grill from 8am to 11pm,” Meyrick recalls. “There were issues with the hotel ... but we had to keep going, they needed to open when they did, they couldn’t skip a year. They were in a really tough position and I hope we supported them enough ... we gave them a brand, I held up my end of the bargain, we really worked it for them.” While grateful for the experience, Meyrick was ready to move on when his six-month stint came to an end. “I really enjoyed working with them, it was a great way for us to absorb what it is to work in Perth, and what it is to run a business in Perth,” he says. And what did he discover about Perth diners? “Everyone (on Rottnest) wants a Bali holiday, but at $28 an hour you can only have so many staff on the floor, you can only do so much. Expectations were high. It was one of the things that we learned. But the main thing (we learned) was, you can’t have too many toys in the kitchen, so we really streamlined it.” At the same time, his family was adjusting to life in Perth. Meyrick laughs when recalling failing his first driver’s test (he has since passed and ditched the bike as his main means of transport) and his son’s confusion while learning the rules of AFL. But he and his family have fallen in love with the city and immersed themselves in what Meyrick describes as a vibrant, multicultural community. “There’s such a great Asian community here, Perth is more diverse than Sydney or Melbourne, it’s integrated more,” he says. “There's a lot of great back stories here with growers, there’s a lot of backyard restaurants ... everyone's making something at home and selling it or, or they have a little cafe in their back courtyard where they do their backso (meatball soup) and their noodle soups. Looking at Perth moving forward, I think it will now be really recognised as the gateway of Asia.” With international travel still a dream, in the meantime Meyrick is embarking on his new venture. Will St — the name stemmed from an abandoned plan to open a restaurant on William Street in Northbridge, but is instead now a reference to its owner — will be 60 per cent bar and 40 per cent restaurant, with a focus on Asian share dishes, “fun bar snacks”, cocktails, craft beer and wines from all over the world. “I’ll be taking quality Australian produce like West Australian beef and seafood, and using it to create sophisticated dishes that not only taste great but educate too, substituting Asian spices and ingredients with some of the wonderful native ingredients available to us here where possible — things like saltbush for cassia leaf, pepperberry for Sichuan pepper, warrigal greens for spinach, and dried, crushed bush tomatoes instead of the usual layering of fish sauce to give that savoury umami depth,” Meyrick says. For someone who speaks about food with such passion, it is surprising to learn that Meyrick’s hugely successful career stemmed not from a love of food, but out of a desperate need for routine and stability. Meyrick was born in Peru and moved across Europe with his family as a child, due to his father’s job with agricultural machinery company Massey Ferguson. After his parents’ separation he lived in Scotland from eight to 18 before relocating to London. It is here that he lost his way, and a brief run in with the law prompted the need for structure, regime and good references. Enter, the kitchen: a salvation for so many troubled young men. Meyrick has a theory as to why that is. “For people who have struggled in their youth, it gives them a sense of pride, a sense of worth; it gives instant gratification when you cook someone a good meal,” he says. “And so that often helps a lot of people to strive forward, they feel like they have a reason. “But that’s one of the hardest things as well. A lot of chefs have got a story. Many have quite addictive personalities, and I think that’s why you get addicted to that recognition, then you end up feeding your ego, and you swap your addiction for one thing, to another. “But some of them haven’t been able to hold on to that, and that’s why there is such a high suicide rate (in the industry).” While born out of necessity, his career in the kitchen led to a love and respect for food, and in particular for exploring different culinary cultures. Through that, has come true joy. “That bubble (of the kitchen) is really nurturing for a lot of people in the industry. The main thing for me, on a personal level, is about food culture, travel, understanding history, and how people have integrated ... and that’s pretty much what’s driving Will St,” he says. That desire to learn more about different food cultures, and an appetite for travel instilled by his nomadic childhood, inspired a popular YouTube channel The Street Food Chef, which details his culinary-inspired adventures. He is comfortable in front of the camera, having appeared as a judge on Top Chef Indonesia, and while Meyrick is not able to travel at the moment, he takes viewers on a tour of international flavours through his food channel. He also hopes Will St will offer an antidote to our wanderlust. Will St is slated to open in late September, and will coincide with a reinvention of Leederville, which Meyrick predicts will once again become the “hot destination” for Perth dining. “You’ve got its proximity to the city, the Electric Lane shopping and dining precinct about to get going as part of the redevelopment of the Leederville Hotel, and a whole lot of businesses looking to move in,” Meyrick says. As for his beloved Bali, he believes it will be another two or three years before it is back, but says “when it pops, it will explode”. And when that happens, he hopes to expand on the connection between the two countries. “When this is all finished, or we’ve learned to live with (COVID), you’ll find Perth is closer to Asia for business, and that’s what we are looking at, building that relationship.” In the meantime, escape for the Meyrick family now involves a recently acquired camper trailer which they will use to explore WA. They recently visited Carnarvon and Meyrick, always quick to immerse himself in the stories of his surroundings, found a synergy with the tale of Dirk Hartog, who was seeking out Java when he happened upon the West Australian coast in 1616. “It’s a little bit like us, we’ve been washed up here. But we are so happy to be here, we’re very grateful,” he says. “We’re not looking to make waves, we want to get integrated. Everything has fallen into place and we just hope Perth is happy to have us here. Now we just want to get on with it.”

The West Australian exclusiveWill St Leederville: Acclaimed Mama San Bali restaurateur Will Meyrick opens new WA restaurant

exclusive
Will St Leederville: Acclaimed Mama San Bali restaurateur Will Meyrick opens new WA restaurant