Reinterpreting coastal luxury with an eye on design, technology and community, The Belongil is a new four-part dining precinct led by Vue de Monde founder Shannon Bennett, just north of central Byron Bay. The chef and his business partner (and Belongil neighbour) Glen Norman have invested more than $10 million in the project, which was first imagined around 18 months ago and comprises four parts: fine dining restaurant Feu, the casual The Belongil Bistro, members-only bar Blind Tiger and beachfront The Belongil Kiosk.
“I didn’t have to procrastinate on what it needed — and what the area needed — because it’s literally in my neighbourhood,” said Bennett to Gourmet Traveller on the development process.
“The word “hospitality” needs to be reinvented occasionally — not just in Byron but all over,” he said. “So, I thought, let’s do that from the kiosk where we do great egg and bacon rolls all the way through to a high-end dining experience in Feu.”
Past Vue de Monde talent joining him at The Belongil include business partner and group executive chef Cory Campbell (ex-Noma), Master Sommelier Carlos Simoes Santos (who also worked with Gordon Ramsay and Alain Ducasse in London), and group pastry chef Rewenka De Buhr (Burnt Ends in Singapore, Quay in Sydney).
While he’s been out of kitchens for a while, Bennett says reconnecting with producers and tapping into the knowledge of his high-performing peers has been a highlight of developing The Belongil. “I’ve been interviewing chefs and then going out to the farms they’ve loved and recommend: Matt Moran, Guillaume Brahimi, Peter Gilmore, Hugh Allen…,” he said.
“Josh Lewis, who used to be my head chef, is now a commercial fisherman and runs three restaurants in the area. Daniel Fleming, who Neil [Perry] recommended, literally catches the best spanner crab I’ve ever tasted out the front of the restaurant.”
He also lists local businesses like regenerative farm Conscious Ground, Picone’s Exotic Fruit Farm in Tyagarah, and chef Palisa Anderson’s Boon Luck Farm. “Palisa has been amazing,” said Bennett. “She’s an incredible mentor and has shared so much of her knowledge of what’s growing and when.”
The Belongil’s broad design scheme feels completely tied to the Byron Bay aesthetic, with recycled elements and tech-heavy touchpoints throughout. A bathroom in Feu designed by Sydney creative studio Nakatomi and Byron Bay artist Jack Bailey uses AI to respond to a user’s voice with light and sounds with the aim of boosting dopamine. Timber from a 300-year-old Japanese temple that Bennett purchased a decade ago features in Feu and members-only bar Blind Tiger, and works from names like Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung man Otis Hope Carey (a world-first, AI-led collaboration with Nakatomi) and London-based artist David Noonan are cause to pause. Staff are dressed in seasonal capsules by Australian designer Song For The Mute.
NFC chips are used across the precinct, and Bennett is developing an art-led alternative to the widely loathed QR code. Beyond the aesthetics, sustainability initiatives include an on-site water sanitation system, 100-kilogram composter, and fermenting and preserving practices, particularly at The Belongil Bistro where head chef Caitlin Koether (Molli in Melbourne, Relae in Copenhagen) brings fermentation experience from renowned San Francisco eatery Bar Tartine to develop food circularity systems.
Feu
The Belongil’s 40-seat fine-dining restaurant Feu offers every diner a unique experience, with an immersive and collaborative approach to the creation of every multi-course tasting menu. “Feu came about because there is, literally, not enough power to the site to run four venues with full induction and everything else,” Bennett said.
The necessary (and on-trend) decision to cook over charcoal saw Bennett and Campbell choose local yellow box wood as the fuel behind the shadowy restaurant with chefs at work in a centred kitchen space.
“Ben Devlin from Pipit introduced us to Leia [Sherblom], who owns Grit Ceramics in Murwillumbah. She’s made us beautiful representations of ingredients made out of porcelain,” explained Bennett. “You might put the snapper tail on your plate, choose some grass-fed Mishima wagyu and then, for dessert, a mango — which is represented by a mango leaf. Every guest will have something different to the person next to them because they pick their ingredient for each course.”
NFC chips embedded into each piece offer details on the ingredient’s provenance and producer, closing the loop of Bennett’s desire to integrate art, tech and a new way to devise menu.
While the process sounds chaotic, it’s all the result of preparation and testing. “It’s going to challenge us in the kitchen; it might sound like we’re working on the fly, but we’ve been working on dishes for a month in advance in the development kitchen, really studying the produce,” he says.
Beyond a befuddling shipping container entrance, guests walk through a tunnel lined with wine bottles to enter the Lee Brennan-designed dining room with a dark charcoal palette, plinth-like concrete waiter stations and 300-year-old ceramics from a Dutch ship that sank off Indonesia.
The Belongil Bistro
In the 80-seat bistro (the former site of Belongil Beach Italian), a produce-led, grazing-friendly offering invites diners to step in off the beach, or settle in for elevated dining events. Starting with snacks and entrées, the menu is liberally sprinkled with the names of local producers, with salt and pepper slipper cray, Boon Luck Farm vegetable crudites with a tarragon emulsion, Fleming Fish Co.’s spanner crab cocktail, and grilled flatbread with lemon crème fraîche and trout roe.
Main dishes and substantial proteins include Bangalow pork with pecan and apple, poached bar cod in umami broth, premium steaks from Blackmore and CopperTree Farms, and lamb leg from Matt Moran’s farm cooked in kelp and clay for 12 hours. Sandy hues, sweeping fabric ceilings and natural fibres like rattan create a breezy atmosphere across the dining room and few bar seats, with lunch and dinner served daily, and all-day service on weekends.
Blind Tiger
Named for a famed Prohibition-era New York bar, Blind Tiger is accessed via a hidden entrance and by invitation only. Quelling concerns of elitism, Bennett says, “Memberships are given out — you don’t pay for them — to people who are regulars, or maybe to people who have travelled to have dinner with us. Each member can bring three guests as well.”
Formed like an upturned boat, the bar focuses on whisky and cocktails, responding, says Bennett, to a gap in the Byron Bay market. “There are great places in the area like Bar Heather, Light Years… but I’ve had so many people say to me that they’d love a dedicated cocktail bar.”
As well as the Japanese temple timber, original wood that formed piers and railway platforms from the site’s whaling station days, found in a timber yard a few kilometres away, has also been repurposed. Built around the concepts of craftsmanship and connection, each signature cocktail reflects a story about the local area, with custom ice carved from large blocks, and regular vinyl DJs in the mix.
The Belongil Kiosk
“Everyone needed a place for decent coffee, where they remember your name and honour locals,” says Bennett. Enter The Belongil Kiosk: an open-air counter offering takeaway service for the sandy-footed and salt-slicked from 7am daily with almost the entire menu priced under $20.
As well as grab-and-go staples for the local crowd like chia puddings and jarred grain and vegetable salads, the menu lists Bangalow bacon and egg rolls; a fish burger with special Belongil sauce; and house-made pastries and sweets including a mango custard crumble. Coffees, smoothies and fresh juices are joined by a vending machine selection of canned drinks like coconut coffee or yuzu and sencha iced tea, and even small snacks.
See menus and book for Feu and The Belongil Bistro online.
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