An alliance of fire, stone and steel, forged in a deliciously rugged fashion, Brown Street Grill is the Perth dining destination for all things wood-fired and charcoal grilled.
Meet Chef Stuart Laws…the man in charge of the kitchen at this restaurant located within Bright Tank Brewing Company on Brown Street in East Perth. Along with wife Phoebe, the pair showcases WA produce cooked by smoke and flames.
The open concept kitchen is decked out with some serious tools of the trade – a Mesiano wood-fired pizza oven and custom-built grill used to produce honest, tasty fare.
Dampier born and bred, Stuart has more than 20 years’ experience in a multitude of areas within the food industry and sees himself as an ambassador of all things Western Australian.
"I have a passion for small producers and fresh local produce and am always striving for simplicity and flavour through innovative menu design and uncompromised cooking techniques,” he tells AGFG.
"This now encompasses charcoal and woodfired cooking; a passion developed over the last few years into the new venture which is Brown Street Grill.”
Stuart believes Chefs are the conduit between the farmer and the consumer and as a regular presenter on Channel 9’s ‘Our State on a Plate’, he promotes WA producers sharing their stories with the rest of the country.
The desire to become a Chef developed at an early age when he cooked his first dish of hoisin chicken using a Women’s Weekly Chinese cookbook. These days his style is simple, seasonal and tasty as seen in his recipe for char-grilled Albrolhos octopus, cauliflower purée, fennel salad and sobresada.
"Octopus and fire go hand in hand and have done for many years…Abrohlos octopus is the best you can get,” he says.
What Stuart loves most about the restaurant business is its ‘Peter Pan’ syndrome – ‘every year there is a bunch of 18-year-olds who join the industry, so you never grow old.’
The past 24 months have been dramatic for everyone and Stuart believes there are some important lessons to be learnt.
"COVID has taught restaurants to be confident in their product – it’s about what you do best. Diners will come if they enjoy what you do, they will tell their friends and bring others again and again.”
As for the future, Stuart would love to have a small hobby farm where he can grow his own produce to support a B&B somewhere down the track – in the meantime you’ll find him on the pans at Brown Street doing what he does best!
