Friday 10 Friday

Bucci Ristorante has become the latest 'must do' in Port Douglas

Spencer and Reina Patrick came to Port Douglas in 2007 and very quickly fulfilled their dream of opening their own restaurant.

They found a site on Macrossan Street, the main street of Port Douglas, which had previously been a successful bistro called Table 41.

The owners of Table 41 were just about ready to retire so the Patricks made an offer, took over the running concern but renamed the restaurant after their new born baby son, Harrison.

Harrison's hit the market at full speed after a very successful launch but Port Douglas, along with the rest of Queensland was not enjoying the best of times on the tourist front with so many external global financial pressures affecting travel and job security and without that tourist dollar to top up the local support, the restaurant performed at a level below Spencer and Reina's expectations.

The food, the wine list and the service were never an issue, they were maintained at an exceptional level but something just wasn't right.

It was about eighteen months into their operations that their Guardian Angel made an appearance !

The Living Room Restaurant in Wharf Street had battled it's way through their first three years since their own launch achieving some significant landmarks themselves with nominations for dining awards and quality reputations being slowly built.  However, due to many circumstances outside their control the owners were weighing up their options as to whether to persevere, change or sell.

The answer came from Spencer and Reina and their business partners Mike and Di when a proposition was put forward to relocate Harrison's to the Living Room site and open a long overdue Italian restaurant on the Harrison's site.

So the Bucci Italian Ristorante was opened at 41 Macrossan Street on June 1st. The redecoration includes gorgeous colourful mural artworks by local artist Jai Vasicek to give diners an authentic Italian rustic environment.

Overnight the venue took on a whole fresh feel to complement perfectly the new innovative Italian family style menu.

This new mouth watering menu aimed at both the family and the gourmand, lists ten delicious antipasti options using gluten free products including Black Tasmanian mussels steamed in White wine, parsley, garlic and chilli, award winning curd cheese w/parma ham and truffle vinaigrette and Terrine of veal sweetbreads and smoked chicken.

The primi pasta menu boasts among its seven options, house made gnocchi with calamari, Linguine with crab, thin rustic braised ox cheek ragu and a varied Risotto of the day.

The five main course options have a fresh fish dish of the day, 350g T-bones with red wine garlic butter, green beans and garlic rosemary potatoes. And there's a Confit of duckleg with green lentils and red wine poached pears that sounds irresistible.

If you have any room left the dessert menu has a homemade tiramisu, varied tarts of the day and a whole array of ice cream choices.

Spencer and Reina have also made sure there is a full Children's menu to include any kids size pasta from the menu plus some traditional favourites like Bangers and mash and Fish and salad.

The complementing wine list is exactly as you would expect knowing Spencer's five star background. He has carefully put together a fine but very affordable collection of wines from both the domestic vineyards and New Zealand and of course there is always an authentic Italian option. And conveniently all wines are available by the glass or by the bottle.

It must be very satisfying for Spencer and Reina to see, in the few short weeks that the change was made and Bucci has been open, just how easily and comfortably the ristorante has slipped into the 'must do" list of Port Douglas for both tourist visitors and the locals.

However knowing Spencer and Reina, they will not be sitting back on their laurels, thinking that the job is done. No, they will be planning menu additions, new decor touches and how to make dining at bucci an enjoyable experience over and over again.

That is just their way !

So you've been warned, make sure you book to avoid disappointment on 4099 6364 and there is a very good chance you'll see us from Newsport sitting on the table next to you 'cos it's become a habit that is too hard to break !

Next week in our final feature on The Patricks, we'll take a look behind the scene as Harrison's has it's Official opening at it's new site on July 20th.