Alanna Sapwell-Stone has clocked time in some high-powered kitchens in her time.
“I want people to feel like they can drop in for a home meal, made well,” says Sapwell-Stone who held her wedding at The Eltham. “The menu is going to be a big nod to Women’s Weekly and the CWA and [it] is going to be full of warming classics we all grew up with.”
Translation: if you’re in the mood for chicken parmies, fish and chips and other pub staples, they’ll be on the menu. But daily counter meal specials ensure regulars will always have something new to try. Among the new dishes, you might find a “proper” quiche and salad, barbecued bonito with green beans, potato and garlic butter, plus self-saucing chocolate pudding and strawberry gum roly-poly with bay leaf custard for desserts.
The hotel will continue running its ambitious live music program; the drinks list will celebrate both the old (Tooheys on tap!) and the new (wine from maverick local winemaker Jilly, say); and clued-up guests can still stay upstairs in one of The Eltham’s five character-filled rooms, each named after and inspired by a Northern Rivers woman that’s lived (and loved) at the hotel.
Turns out The Eltham has a long history of attracting capable, ambitious women to this part of the world.
Alanna Sapwell-Stone’s three-month residency at the Eltham Hotel starts in early June and runs over winter.
