Rio was as remembered, except better, this time we stayed in the Copacabana Palace Hotel in the Presidential Suite for a week, which cost a bomb.We were all doing OK financially so money was not a big issue, as it was on my last visit. As I had local knowledge from last time we decided to go to all the great parties during Carnival.
At one of them, the Grand Palace Ball, we had secured tickets through the hotel concierge, and as this was the " Big One" which was attended by Brazil's 'whose who' we dressed up in dinner suits.
Looking smart and enjoying the night, every thing was cool, when Monte...... who must have had to much of whatever !!! was flirting with some Brazilian babes at the next table, telling them " Australians were great dancers", to prove his point, he jumped onto their table and 'dancing the light fantastic' to the band which was playing, fell arse over head and destroyed there table for eight.
Later on, about 10.30 in the evening, our table was approached by security and two couples,the women were beautifully dressed and looked sensational, apparently we had been sold their table. As we could not understand Portuguese, we were not privy to questions being asked about issues and what was going on !! We had paid big bucks for our tickets, however having a table was not that important as we knew the three of us would be floating and Monte had ' done a job on the neighbouring table'. We decided we would give up the table and just circulate. Just as we decided to explain that to them, one of the women lent over the table where we were seated, an lifted the champagne bottle out of the ice bucket , she then picked up the ice bucket and dumped it over my head. With that done, there was no deal- we stayed there. It was a very hot night and I dried off quickly and the night then just kept on getting better.
Our days started late, normally a quick surf, our saving grace was the beach across the road and then we would adjourn to the hotels pool which was half Olympic size and was surrounded with cabanas and hundred of lounges and 'the beautiful people'.
The hotel's "Veranda Restaurant,"overlooked Copacabana Beach and the other side overlooked and catered for the hotel's cabanas around the pool. Style - very colonial, great service and live music - Latin with African drums, rhythmical, so much so that every one was either dancing or walking to the beat, this was constant from early afternoon right through the night.The nights around the gardens and pool were dreamy and magical, as each evening progressed into night and early mornings would see the three of us with entourage at the "Black Rhinoceros"another sensational Rio Night spot.
After Rio the other two winged it back home and I took off for New York via the West Indies staying with friends, (the Bridges) In St John, the Virgin Islands. Rod Bridges was professor of music at the College of the Virgin Islands and an old New York muso who played the flute with the big bands such as Benny Goodman, everything was "solid" with Rod - * You guys ready - solid". Rod introduced me to Tommy Smith the black athlete who won gold at the Mexico Olympics and gave the black power salute. Tommy was in charge of students staying on campus and track and field for the college.
My next port of call was Barbados where I stayed for a few days at "Sandy Lane"one of the great hotels on the Caribbean, every thing about this hotel is right on point, the location on one of the whitest, softest, sandy beaches, the hotel is gentle and low rise, unobtrusive and laid back.Then off to New York.
I stayed in New York with another Australian friend Phil English who was working as an actor on one of the television soaps.I contact Ray Holberton who was the Australian Trade Commissioner who I had met before when he was in Montreal. I explained that I wanted to meet up with and visit some of the great restaurant and their owners and be taken back of house. From the list I rattled off, the one the he knew was the 21 Club, knowing one of the owners Jack Kreindler and would ring him on my behalf and get back to me which he did and arranged me to meet.
The "21" as it's known, is three brownstones, that when I was there in '74 had been operating as a restaurant for 70 years. Jack Kreindler and his partner Charlie Berns, both in their mid seventies,had had it since prohibition times. He was so hospitable, he had lunch with me and I sat in his booth next to the kitchen in the grill/bar room. Prior to that I had been taken on a morning tour throughout the function rooms of which there were ten, by Joe Dinan who was the nephew of Charlie Berns and, the cellars - which housed private bins for any one who was anyone - Onassis, the Kennedy's, there was a small wine museum, a secret wall which opened, when a steel rod was inserted into a nondescript hole in the wall, on a swivel used for keeping booze hidden during prohibition.
After my tour and during lunch I was asked what I thought about the memorabilia hanging from the ceiling, which I had not noticed. Looking up I could see what looked like large toys suspended from the ceiling.I asked "what was the story", Jack recalled, he was lunching with Howard Hughes in the same booth where we were having our lunch, not long after they had opened, and Howard Hughes thought that the ceiling was to high, and that he would give them the model of the "Spruce Goose" to suspend and by the reducing the height of the ceiling. Then he suggested Jack should contact Henry Ford and Jack Chrysler and get their models, which was done, and now they had a virtual museum of American transport suspended from the ceiling.
They very kindly organised me introductions to the rest of the restaurants I wanted to visit which included - Four Seasons, Luchows, Sardis, Maxwell Plumbs and PJ Clarks.
Of those, "Luchows" impressed me the most as this was enormous restaurant opposite Steinway in Gramercy Park, near Union Square. It was the size of the GPO in Sydney. A block long between 13th and 14th Streets and specialised in German cuisine. The General Manager was a young Lithuanian and controlled a staff of about 300, the place ran like an international hotel with its own baker, butcher, patisserie and turned over 1500 covers a day and had been operating for ninety seven years.The uniforms the staff wore were modelled on Prussian officers, dark blue with gold epaulet's, with gold crown for ten years of service.
The function rooms were named after famous New Yorkers who were regular customer like, Diamond Jim Brady who apparently had the appetite of ten men and the actress and his dining companion, Lillian Russell.The German food specials were : schnitzels, wild game, knackwurst and sauerkraut. Decor art Nouveau- bevelled mirrors, artwork and oil paintings of Bacchus, ornate crytsal chandeliers,high ceilings, carved joinery,loud atmosphere, a cross between a German beer hall and Palm Court with live oompah orchestra in the background.
The other two I liked was; PJ Clarks, an Irish Bar which was a one story corner building set amongst Manhattans Skyscrapers, over 110 years old, that served great martinis in it's front bar which was the quintessence of Manhattan Bars, from the apron clad no nonsense barmen to the amazing stock of alchoholic beverages displayed and shelved above, below and behind the bar. Brunch and diner served in the back dining room specialising in Eggs Benedict, Goat Cheese Omelet and Egg Sandwich Burger.
The newest edition of restaurants opened in New York was the Four Seasons Restaurant on the ground floor in the Seagram's Building. Opened in 1959 with huge fanfare due to its cost of three million dollars,touted as the most expensive restaurant opened in the world. It broke new ground by providing it's clientele with seasonal menus, all American wine list, and artwork by Picasso, Jackson Pollock and the restaurant designed by Mies van der Rohe.
San Francisco beckoned and old mates to meet up with, Richard Ovington was there as was Paul Olin, both whom I stayed with and married to American wives Arlene and Marion respectively. From San Francisco I went to Carmel and met up with another friend Paul Quiney who had just opened a small restaurant in Cannery Row in Monterey, called "Quiggs Downunder". He was battling along so I decide to give him a hand and stay awhile.
We saw an advertisement for a "cabin for let" in the local newspaper, in Bixby Canyon in Big Sur, a part of California I have always liked and the opportunity to stay there was to good to be missed. We drove down to check it out and not to our surprise we discovered this two bedroom log cabin of our dreams, beside a fast running stream, which was a hundred yards from the beach, in this private canyon,which had only five other similar type log cabins. Key entry via three meter high wooden gates making it all the more secluded.We met the owners a young couple who had inherited the cabin from their parents and were off to LA to work on a movie and they wanted to rent it for three months which suited us, as I intended to only stay for a couple of weeks and Paul thought he could rent my room when I left.
Big Sur is a majestic part of California, acouple of hundred K's south of SF,where the mountains come down to meet the coast and Highway One is cut into the cliff face with sheer drops of hundreds of feet to the crashing waves below with sheer cliffs above and then open sky, with breaks in these cliffs that are indented by canyons that lead into the mountains, forests and wilderness.Over Bixby Canyon there is a viaduct that Highway One traverses over and hundreds of meters below you can see the beach.
Here I hung out for a month walking in the redwood forest, running on the beach, jumping into the ocean which was freezing and barking at the seals that used to come right into the shoreline. I think they must have heard about these mad Aussies moving into Bixby Canyon and they came down for a bow peep. Virginia a friend of Pauls who was staying for a weekend up from LA, thought I should get back to civilization after seeing me running up and down the beach in the nude, jumping into the water playing"Catch" with the seals obviously the Angel Dust was having an effect.
I flew back to Sydney to be confronted by Warwick Moss and Graham Shields who in unison had decided that I was not wanted as a working partner and as I had run up the "Grapes" Amex overseas, I was considered irresponsible, considering the debt they were in, which was a fair enough point. So after negotiating with Jack Moss, Warwick's father who was the partner and Geof Paarl our bank manager, I decided I wanted a payout in total from the business and property, as I was not wanted, I wanted totally out, for which I was paid for my third share in the business and the property.
Another local Peter Johnstone, a plumber took on the reigns as the builder. We kept the "Grape" trading for as long as possible whilst we did construction work work around the existing business, as we needed every dollar we could rouse up.
We eventually had to close after a complaint from a customer, that a piece of ceiling plaster had fallen onto his plate as he was enjoying lunch, because there was construction work being done upstairs.On the Saturday I decided to have an auction of all the tat and brica - brac, furnishings not being used when we reopened. Harvey Dewshore became the auctioneer and sold most of what was to be auctioned in the afternoon, that night became a wild night, more so, as when we closed the bar and went to do the tills to count the nights takings, the bank bag with the auction money had disappeared and never was found.
This was a major rebuild compared to what had been done in the past. There was building to be done on all three levels, up until now we had only used the ground floor and the cellar underneath the bar.Besides the construction work, there was also the sourcing and purchasing of the new furnishings, fittings and equipment that was to be installed into the new areas. Such as the new dining room upstairs with it's own Kitchen. Extending the existing kitchen, as downstairs was being nearly doubled in capacity, as the toilets at the end of the bar had been deemed inadequate by the licensing police so were relocated downstairs and twice the size plus we built an office .By doing this, the bar became larger and from the bar you walked out onto a veranda which was buit over the office, this area seated another twenty five or so.
North Sydney Council was supportive of our plans, I think this was helped by Carol Baker who was the Lord Mayoress and a frequent customer, also we got along well with Licensing and the North Sydney Police ,as we kept a tidy house downstairs, what happened upstairs, was our business. We were three young blokes, healthy and fit, becoming wealthy, I lacked wisdom but had plenty of vision. I was starting to take out Ave Wilson and we were becoming an item, she was working at the Grape and helping with the upstairs restaurant
I was starting to feel the pressure now the Grape was closed, to finish the rebuild and get the place reopened, and start making some dollars as our debts were mounting. I was hooking into a fair bit of dope at the time and that was not the wisest move as I really needed my wits about me.
I went back to my parents home one time during the day,in that period of closedown.
I did not think any of my folks were at home. The gardens at the back of the house are steep, terraced and kept natural with a creek at the bottom, in the middle of the creek was a big rock that I used to sit on when I was a kid and look up at the immense size of the Gum Trees and watch the water swirl around either side of the rock, especially after heavy rains. We were the last house in the street, our back garden was very private, though it had no fence and adjoined and looked over the first tee of the Lane Cove Country Club. it was surrounded by bush and people could not see into our property. I was sitting there remembering how Mum and Dad had built the house and the garden over years and I started to cry and cry and could not stop, feeling remorse, drugs and booze do that to me.Out of no where, Mum quietly with out a word appeared behind me, and gently started massaging my neck and shoulders, until I finished crying, and just as quietly as she came, she went .Oh! I miss them both.
We re opened after being closed for about six weeks, prematurely, the glass still had to be installed into the timber frames of the windows in the new veranda off the bar. One customer thought it,' a creative way of air conditioning'.
Once all done the place looked fantastic - though there was a fair bit of fine tuning, to be done on service and cuisine, and completion of the backyard which was still a tip for demolition works, and was the last job to be done, in completing the scope of works.
There were some inconsistencies and mistakes that I made, in furniture selection for the veranda and the menu was to big. Conceptually, the three levels were now being utilised 100%, as an operational "Grape Escape" and had a capacity of fifty diners upstairs with it's own kitchen. An enlarged downstairs kitchen that caters to another hundred diners with increased bar area that could accommodate another fifty or so, and the garden another fifty- in all the 'Grape' could cater for a couple of hundred customers in one sitting.
I was feeling pretty washed up at this stage, having completed the design and construction program, co ordinated all the trades and consultants. Sourced and installed new furnishings, antiques and equipment, employed and trained new staff for kitchen, bar and floor. Created with the chefs, new menus for lunch and diner for bistro and our French la carte restaurant upstairs and organised marketing and opening nights.
I decided, after we had been opened for a few weeks, a holiday was in order and with Tony Flook and Monte Gildea we flew to Rio de Janeiro for Carnivale for a week, and then the plan was onto New York to check out some restaurants, then San Francisco to see old mates and home.I left the 'Grape' in the hands of Graham and Warwick, hoping all would be well on my return.
As much as the lunch time was busy, it was the evening trade that made the Grape Escape as popular as it was. It became an after work place to have a drink, a neighbourhood waterhole,a place for "boy meets girl", a general meeting place for a drink and to listen to some good music.Most nights it was busy and we were open seven days a week.
We had only been trading for six months when we bought the building, 139-141 Blues Point Road for $42,000 and after twelve months we decide to redecorate - which in those days was unheard of. I had latched onto that idea from some of the bar and restaurant owners in San Francisco. We used the same interior decorators that John & Merivale used for their boutiques, as Terry and I were frequent shoppers at Mr Johns in King Street, he had good boots.
Deciding on a Victoriana Theme, the walls painted a gloss burgundy/red patina, wainscoting around all the walls, the panelling stained cedar, an array of antique light fittings throughout and we revealed the staircase to open up the entry hall. The furniture changed from Captains Chairs to Bentwood and we were ready for our second opening night.
This time around it was different as we knew everyone we were inviting and the whole exercise was excellent PR and helped establish the "Grape". Mind you there was a fair amount of competition starting to evolve - 'The Stoned Crow' in Crows Nest had recently been opened by Warwick Short and 'Dionysus ' in Milsons Point at a similar time by Robyn Fiorelli and Sid Preston and the Bengal Curry House in North Sydney owned by Ron Roberts and David Naish, Dick and Maureen Thornett had the "Rag and Famish" Hotel in North Sydney.
We were all friendly rivals and often we drank at each others establishments and became good friends.Many times we would be out having drinks when our own customers would join us, one place this happened often was Johnny Walkers Bistro in Angel Place. There was a regular team that would meet up most Fridays for lunch, sometimes twenty or so, with lunch disappearing into evenings into mornings and Oh! No! another hangover from to much red, port and herb superb.
Thank God we were young fit and bullet proof and also that there were two of us involved in the management. To commence we started of doing shifts of day, on day off, which meant we would start at around 10am setting up for lunch and then go through and close in the early days at 10pm which was a 12 hour shift, later the license allowed 12 pm close. As we became more organised we worked, week on and week off.
I moved down to Whale Beach and rented an old stone cottage in Bynya Road, this allowed me to get away totally as before, I had been living either upstairs on premises, or renting an apartment nearby in McMahons point. Now moving to Palm Beach gave me a total break. This also renewed my love of the surf ,ocean, and getting fit. After I had settled in, I would go down to Palm Beach and go up into the sand hills at the northern end, underneath Barrenjoey Headland, and run till I dropped and then throw myself into the surf and finish up exhausted, lying on a towel in the sun letting it's energy revive me and go and do it again a bit less each time,three or four times, until I was to tired and just lay there in the sun.Moving down there was like being on holidays, every second week I would go on hols, and hang out on the beach.There was a solid team of friends living on the Northern Beaches so you did not lack for company if you wanted it. Most of the time I was happy just to be on my own or with Ave.By the end of each week I would be well recharged and be ready for the "Grape" and the energy necessary to inject into the staff, the customers and running the business. It was "full on"for both lunch and diner and to top it off we were "very social", not necessarily when we were working. During opening hours we did not drink much until the night started to wind down and then we would start to wind up.
The enthusiasm of the "Grape Escape" manifested with us, the staff and regular customers for a couple of years in that time we achieved a lot for some blokes who had never been in business before or together as partners. It had been two years of living, breathing, working and falling in love with the "Grape" couple with all that it, being closely involved in a partnership with Terry who was the best bloke to be in partnership like this with.We had such a great time right from the inception in putting it altogether and then operating it.Our management skills were definitely inclined towards marketing, public relations, designing and refurbishment as we were always building and extending. We enjoyed each others company and we were not competitive of one another, though we we both had competitive characteristics, we did not agree all the time,Terry though it through more than I would I be more instinctive and rush in to it. An example of that was when I suggested after we had been trading for about a year and the place was humming, that we should redecorate and update, close down for a week and relaunch. Terry initially found this hard to grasp as we were doing such good business. I had seen this concept of redecorating /refurbish work well with some of the bars in Union Street,San Francisco, namely "The Camelot" and Perry's which is still going strong after trading for 43 years, being opened by Perry Butler in 1969 and still there is testament to a well run restaurant that keeps current with the trends in the hospitality industry.
As we became more and more popular the licensing police started to have a conversation that our toilet facilities were not coping with the crowd and numbers we were attracting, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.Which in essence meant that we had to come up with larger male and female toilets.
So I resolved a plan with Warren Firkin to extend the building into the back yard which increased the ground floor and basement with new toilets and larger cellar, office and storage and on the ground level increased the kitchen, bar and gave a new back veranda room.We opened upstairs as a stand alone restaurant, with new kitchen and separate French Menu, own toilets and a veranda with views of Lavender Bay. Warren drew this up and costed it and we gave ourselves a budget of $130,000, we approached Penfolds Wines who arranged a loan of $130,000 and we proceeded to rebuild the "Grape" to double it's size after our development application was approved by North Sydney council.
We decided on what a third of the business was worth - $15,000, as Terry did not sell his share in the property at that time. I looked for a new partner to take over Terry's role, which was a hard act to follow. Robert Highfield tried and borrowed from his dad $15k but that did
not work out, Robert thought it was 100% party time, which it was not especially with the rebuild. Graham Shields came on board, I met Graham and ended up sharing a place in Salisbury, Rhodesia with him a couple of years back and advised him to get the fuck out of there and meet up with mates of mine in San Francisco, which he did.
Now he was my partner in the Grape as he had just returned to Sydney and needed a gig so his folks leant him fifteen big ones which he gave to me and I gave back to Bob Highfield's Dad.
After we had been open for about six weeks we were getting an indication on who were becoming regulars some for lunch other in the evening and other week ends.
Lunch as we anticipated was popular with Film, Advertising and TV - North Sydney,Crows Nest, Milsons Point and Mac Mahons Point was where they were based and the "Grape Escape" was bang in the middle and we captured that market for many years way after the three of us had departed. we regularly used to do in excess of 100 covers daily.
The long lunch was popular and enjoyed by a lot of people many of them not with us now, Eric Porter was one who brought us a lot of business, not only for lunch. His animated film studios were literally a hundred meters away he would normally arrive with at least five or six of his management or clients, or both at least twice a week and then there was his top staff who were all such good customers and who brought so many people for for lunch or drinks.
Next would have to be Tony Flook, Tony had a small chain of fashion boutiques in North Sydney and the City called "Flookies".Tony and I became solid friends and he loved the "Grape" so much that he moved his office into a large terrace directly opposite. We both shared the same bank Manager, Geof Paal from the Bank of NSW at North Sydney, where eventually Tony took over the banks premises and turned it into a fashion complex.Tony was popular, with plenty of mates and girlfriends and he also liked a good lunch as much as getting smashed on those many nights that we enjoyed at the Grape and then continuing into the night to the Bengal or Chequers.
Tony introduced a whole team to the Grape Escape, he came from the Northern Beaches and a lot of these people worked all over the place and became regulars due to Tony's patronage and the bar was their meeting place.Mind you there was plenty to attract single good looking blokes from the beaches. As much as we employed some good looking ladies we also encouraged single good looking ladies to become customers.
As an incentive to keep the 'status quo' Terry came up with the Idea of "Man of the Week" and "Girl of the Week".There were two blackboards behind the Bar which had the drink list chalked up and Lunch specials. We dedicated the bottom space on both boards to writing this up every Monday morning after deciding who they would be. The deciding factor would normally be if they were seen constantly on premises.
Lockie Maher was another lunchtime regular his agency Maher Shennon were good customers even after an altercation over me charging by the glass for Para Port and Lockie disagreeing as he reckoned he should get bottle prices as they drank so much of it by the glass.Terry and I knew Lockie from Rugby as he used to play for Northern Suburbs- however Neil his partner was an equally good customer as we knew many agency people would.
Another character was Ian Hart who owned Seeka Productions, a fim production group, with Ross Nicholls a camera man. Hart loved a drink, and a practical joke, one of his drinking mates was Ian Everingham who was also in advertising, they were big men, Hart was a Pom and supposedly ex commando and programmed to kill. The two of them were drinking at one end of the bar, late one afternoon and I was at the other end talking with Flookie - they had not been there long, and had obviously been elsewhere for lunch, and I could see from their behaviour and loud laughter they were pissed. I had my back to them, and un noticed Ian had wandered over, as if to talk to us, as I turned around he caught me with a punch into my solar plexus and I doubled up coughing and spluttering. He quickly said "I did it for a bet" before Flookie and I responded - I looked over and Hart was pissing himself, yelling out " we wanted to see if you could take a joke"
Others that come to mind were the blokes who owned the construction group RLM, Bob Rose, Rob Laing and Ian MacAskill.They used to like the eye candy behind the bar, a relief from the blokey world of construction.Ron Allen and Ian Keirnan also used to enjoy checking out the girls at the Grape, Ron helped early in the opening stages by passing the word around to some of the team on the Eastern Suburbs. Ross Renwick from the the Billy Blue group was another `lunch regular 'who I knew from Bilgola Life Savers when I was at school. Wayne Young and Trevor Harrison who owned Spectrum always made and entrance as they were always were accompanied with with the good sorts that worked with them like Kate Shea, Carol Lopes and Susie Petersen.
Nights was
