After five years in Sydney’s Surry Hills, chef Dylan Cashman is taking The Blue Door home to the Mid-North Coast. The award-winning chef will open The Blue Door Bellingen with his wife, wine director and co-owner Angelica Nohra, bringing the restaurant’s focus on ethical produce, local farmers, whole-animal cooking and “fun-dining” closer to the region that shaped him. Opening on September 18 inside a heritage-listed former bank, the 24-seat restaurant marks a return north for Cashman, who was born and raised in Crescent Head. Cashman said, “I felt the only way for The Blue Door to grow and become its true self was to move to the countryside, where the environment surrounding the restaurant echoes the restaurant itself.” The Sydney restaurant built its reputation on close relationships with growers, ethical sourcing and a style of cooking that never sat neatly in the white-tablecloth box. In Bellingen, that approach becomes more direct: the farmers are closer, the produce is more immediate and the restaurant can follow what the region gives it week by week. The dining room keeps much of the old bank’s character, with timber floors, soft tan leather seating, colonial green and white tones, and an open kitchen. The 11 dining tables have been made by Cashman’s uncle and cousin from a single tree, one of the first trees milled at their grandfather’s timber mill after it was destroyed in the 2019 bushfires. Crockery has been commissioned from NSW ceramicists Gabs Wallington and Leia Sherbolm, while local Indigenous artist Jason Ridgeway has created a large feature artwork for the restaurant. A 100km radius At the centre of The Blue Door is an ever-changing seven-plus-course tasting menu, priced at $179 per person. Rather than writing a menu and asking farmers to meet it, Cashman and his team will cook around the best produce available each week. The team personally visits the farms it sources whole animals from, while vegetables will come from no-till and regenerative growers across the Mid-North Coast. The restaurant is aiming to source as much as possible from within about 100 kilometres of Bellingen. Cashman said, “If we have a whole animal, we use the whole animal. If the farmers have beautiful vegetables, that’s what we build the menu around. “For me, that’s what seasonality really means – it can change every week.” Bread, charcuterie and other elements will be made in-house, with every animal butchered by the team. The restaurant is not chasing a permanent signature dish, because the signature is the way it cooks: local produce, whole-animal work, honest flavours and nostalgic food that shifts with the seasons. Cashman’s own cooking has been shaped across Australian and European kitchens. He completed his apprenticeship in Bangalow in 2012 before working at Sean’s Panorama, Cottage Point Inn and Paper Daisy, followed by two-and-a-half years in Michelin-starred kitchens in Europe, including three-Michelin-starred Vendôme in Germany. At The Blue Door Bellingen, those influences come through in a modern Australian menu that can move through Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian, British, Korean, Italian and Japanese flavours, depending on what best serves the produce. The local producer list already gives a sense of the restaurant’s direction. Bello Beef supplies pasture-raised beef from Georgie and Sam Baker’s farm just down the road. Patch Organics provides organic fruit and vegetables, while Darkwood Farms brings small-scale certified organic produce grown using regenerative practices. Hogan Farm supplies regenerative pork, and Nautical Seafoods is supplying line-caught, iki jime fish. Where local sourcing is not possible, The Blue Door will continue working with ethical Australian producers, including Northern Rivers Ducks for premium Pekin ducks, and chocolate and vanilla producers from Far North Queensland. Cashman said, “We want to build a restaurant that helps to feed our community, not just in the restaurant itself but by buying all our produce from local farmers, this helps to create jobs and keeps money in our local community. “We believe that adding value to local producers who are farming in a regenerative and ethical manner is the best method for a sustainable food system.” A blue door, but make it casual The Blue Door will also have a more casual side. The six-seat bar and four-seat front patio will operate as The Blue Door Wine Bar, with walk-ins welcome and a snack menu that follows the same produce as the dining room. That could mean house-made charcuterie, beef tartare using local beef, golden potato scallops topped with smoked Ebor trout, Hogan Farm pig head croquettes, daily made pasta, fresh oysters, farm-style burgers and fried chicken. Nohra said, “The idea is that we’re inviting people into our Bellingen home. “And we want people to feel comfortable here, whether they’re coming for the full dining experience or just dropping by the bar for a quick drink and something light to eat.” Nohra’s wine list will stay firmly focused on NSW, showcasing the state’s wine regions with an emphasis on young winemakers, emerging producers, female winemakers and female-led wineries. A NSW wine pairing will be available for $90, alongside a non-alcoholic pairing for $60. Thursday evenings will run as BYO Wine Night, priced at $30 per bottle, with winemaker dinners planned throughout the year. For Cashman and Nohra, The Blue Door Bellingen is meant to be both a local restaurant and a reason for visitors to look more closely at the Mid-North Coast: a small dining room, a blue door and a menu that starts with the people growing, raising and catching the food around it. Source: Pendulum Communications Find more dining out updates on Crumb Wire.
