Having worked their way through the ranks of hotels, cafes and restaurants in Sydney, Canberra and Goulburn, Krishna Bhandari and Basanta Regmi are looking forward to taking over the Lush Cafe and Bar in Goulburn. Photo: John Thistleton.
Two highly experienced chefs are taking over Lush Cafe and Bar in Goulburn from early December.
Both have similar journeys in the Australian restaurant and cafe industry as the current owners of Lush, Rajan Gurung and Raj Acharya, who have purchased the Pavilion Cafe in Clifford Street.
Rajan and Raj will open the former Pavilion as the Bluebird Cafe and Bar on Friday 6 December (and not 9 December, as previously reported).
Basanta Regmi, who came to Sydney from Nepal in 2014 and Krishna Bhandari, who came to Sydney in 2016 after completing Year 12 in Nepal, are the new owners of Lush Cafe and Bar, which they will open on 4 December. They are retaining the name.
Basanta and Krishna will be retaining the Lush menu in the first stages of their new venture and offering new choices as well, until they establish what their Goulburn customers most enjoy. The coffee will stay the same, as will the trading hours.
From 2014 Basanta worked as a kitchen hand at a variety of Sydney venues, including Charing Cross Hotel, Waverley, Sydney Domestic Airport and an Australian catering company, while also learning front-of-house and back-of-house operations.
Following a holiday in Nepal he worked as a cook for Anglicare Aged Care, then moved to Goulburn, working at the Astor Hotel and later the Paragon Cafe for a year.
A qualified accountant, he returned to his profession for a year, until Rajan, his brother-in-law, offered him the opportunity at Lush to own his own business.
Basanta says he is happiest in a bustling cafe environment where he is active and on the go all the time, rather than being confined to one place as an accountant. He contacted Krishna, his cousin, and suggested he come into the business as well. Krishna readily agreed and will work three days in Goulburn, overseeing the kitchen and menu, while maintaining part-time employment in Canberra.
Krishna worked in Sydney as a kitchen hand in various cafes and restaurants including hotels in Newtown and Erskineville, the Sydney Opera House in a high-quality bistro, and fine dining at the Golden Sheaf Hotel, Double Bay.
Qualifying as a chef, he relocated to Canberra and worked for Ricardo’s Cafe in Jamison Plaza preparing breakfasts and lunches. While work during the COVID-19 pandemic was tough, he still managed to become a sous-chef and learned much about running a business. He then worked for Stonehouse Hotel, Amaroo and for the same owners at the Stonehouse at Eagle Hawk, Sutton, and later for the Ainslie Football and Social Club and Gungahlin Lakes Golf and Community Club.
Krishna Bhandari (left) and Basanta Regmi (right) with the founding members of Lush Cafe and Bar, Rajan Gurung and Raj Acharya, who will open the Bluebird Cafe and Bar on 6 December. Photo: John Thistleton.
Working as a sous-chef he manages staff feeding hundreds of diners, with a diversity of catering styles from a la carte to function rooms and now believes the time has come to run his own business.
“We have already appointed two kitchen chefs to run our breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Krishna said. “Along with that, I am also involved, so basically there will be three chefs in there (Lush’s kitchen) and a couple of kitchen hands of a nighttime to help us with our busy hours.”
Basanta will be making the same Lush coffee and his wife Rezina and Krishna’s wife Shriya will help when the need arises.
They plan to make most of their food from scratch in house, will be buying their fruit and vegetables from T Fresh Goulburn, and their seafood from Two Crabs Seafood, which opened recently in Goulburn.
“We are looking to have a seasonal menu, so every three months you will have a new item on the menu,” Krishna said.
As well as retaining the Lush menu, they will be adding to the lunch and dinner menu a house-made mushroom arancini served on truffle aioli with balsamic glaze and parmesan cheese; also deep fried coconut prawn served with capsicum dip; salt and pepper-coated squid served with citrus aioli; and different varieties of pasta.
If something is not well received, they will replace it on the menu with something else. “We are making a menu not to fill a space. We are making a menu where when it reaches the table, people are enjoying a good experience,” Krishna said.
They will accept genuine negative feedback and are open to new ideas.
“Everyone has a different taste. It is very hard to please everyone, but our aim is to please most of them and see what Goulburn needs as well,” Krishna said.
Lush Cafe & Bar is located at 277 Auburn Street, Goulburn. They’re open from 9 am until 8:30 pm Wednesday to Sunday and from 9 am until 3 pm on Monday. Check out their Facebook page for more information.
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