Every restaurant claims sustainable sourcing now, and the claim has been laundered of meaning. So here are our numbers, our suppliers' names, and — more importantly — where we knowingly compromise.
The numbers
Eighty percent of our menu spend goes to farms and fisheries within 150 kilometres. That figure was 60% three years ago; getting to 80 raised our produce costs by roughly a third. Menu prices absorbed most of it, margin took the rest.
Who we buy from
Scenic Rim farms supply the produce — smallholders we visit quarterly, not a distributor with a farm story. Seafood comes off day boats where possible, which means the fish on the menu genuinely depends on what the morning brought in. Valley beef arrives by the whole beast; we butcher and use all of it, which is why the cuts rotate.
Where we compromise
The honest list: dairy comes from further afield than we'd like. Some specialty items can't be sourced locally at any price. And in a bad week, a backup supplier fills gaps the farms can't — we don't claim 100% because it isn't true. Local seafood or none is a rule we keep; local everything is an aspiration, not a fact.
The waste question
Whole-beast butchery, daily fish menus and a small menu are all waste decisions before they're culinary ones. Prep scraps go to staff meals and stock; what's left is genuinely small. The degustation format helps — nine controlled plates waste less than forty a la carte options sitting prepped.
Why bother
Because the food tastes better, which is the only justification that survives scrutiny. The ethics are real but they're the bonus — a carrot pulled that morning simply outperforms one that spent a week in freight. We'd keep buying this way even if nobody asked about sourcing.
