What do you get when you bring together global hospitality experience and a deep knowledge of the suburban eatery lifestyle?
Welcome to Ren Ishii, the latest Japanese restaurant to swing open its doors at Ramsgate.
There at the reins, Stephanie Phillips and her husband, chef Luke Phillips, who call Sans Souci home.
The couple crossed paths when they worked at Catalina (Luke did his apprenticeship there in about 2000). It's where they also met sushi chef Yoshinori Fuchigami, who was at the Rose Bay restaurant for 18 years.
Stephanie and Luke worked in Europe for 12 years before opening Ren Ishii. Luke was the private chef for a Saudi prince on superyachts in the Mediterranean, and on land working at the royal's properties where he entertained guests.
The couple had two children, and returned to open Cooked and Co cafe, Sans Souci, which they ran for eight years.
It was there one of their regular customers who was developing a new project, offered them an opportunity.
"We opened eight weeks ago. We went through major council delays, then COVID-19, but we've been lucky because we had word-of-mouth from the cafe," Stephanie said.
"We've spent a lot of money on fit-out, so we have somewhere nice where people can go without travelling to the city. There was no Japanese in the area. People were screaming out for Japanese."
Luke, a chef for 25 years, has a niche passion for preparing Japanese dishes - mixing European techniques with Japanese flavours.
"It's very fresh, modern clean eating," Stephanie said. "It's designed to share and we try not to make it too traditional - we wanted to make it approachable and fun."
Think tuna pizza with chilli honey dressing, or wagyu brisket cooked in a water bath (sous vide) for three days, served with a kombu chimichurri.
But what about ginger? Don't ask, be surprised. "We don't serve ginger on our sashimi and people are horrified but it's not traditional," Stephanie said.
"It can be a cleanser. If people ask for it we try to enlighten their experience. If they say 'where's the ginger?' we say have a look underneath."
But also the reality of setting up a new business while a pandemic floats around, doesn't come without its challenges.
"Prices are quite daunting moving forward - there are a lot of red cards with increase food and wage costs, it's hard to get staff, interest rates are rising, which takes away from people's disposable income, and restaurants are among the first to take a hit,'" Stephanie said.
"Coming out of a pandemic we still don't have the population we want, and we also have our margins to meet and make money. But it's exciting and we love the area."
