You’ve got less than a month to get your fix of golden cauliflower pies, great charcuterie, puffy gougeres and other examples of Blaze Young’s old-school brilliance at Nieuw Ruin.
When Dimitri Rtshiladze opened Nieuw Ruin in mid-2021, his somewhat modest goal was to give Fremantle a neighbourhood bar serving “weird wine” and likeable snacks.
Drinkers – and diners – had other plans and Nieuw Ruin’s food offering quickly went from co-star to headliner as guests set course for Freo with the express purpose of ripping into charcuterie, sprats, rollmops and other yesteryear favourites carefully resuscitated by Blaze Young, the then-emerging cooking talent stepping up in her first head chef role.
Since then, Nieuw Ruin has made a habit of quietly defying expectations, from hosting value-packed guest winemaker dinners to its steadfast focus on old-school cooking. (Over the past five years, Young’s cooking at Nieuw Ruin has referenced classic French cuisine, the sturdy flavours of Eastern Europe and even CWA nostalgia.)
Its latest plot twist, however, mightn’t prove as popular, with Rtshiladze announcing that Nieuw Ruin’s final service will be Sunday, March 15.
“With our lease being up, now kind of feels like the right time [to close],” says Rtshiladze who also owns Foxtrot Unicorn and one-hatted Edward & Ida’s in the city.
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Although Nieuw Ruin was pivotal in establishing the cooking credentials of its head chef – “it was a vessel that shaped my identity as a chef,” says Young – many a promising young chef has passed through the kitchen of this historic cottage with notable alum including Edward & Ida’s head chef Cassie Garrett; Drew Dawson (The Cool Room); Shauna Shapiro (Lovers Deli & Canteen); recently departed head chef Stephen Chen; plus the restaurant’s opening apprentice Pearl Gill-Hille who is now working at London’s legendary modern British dining room, St John.
While news of the bar’s departure will sting, fans of Young’s luxe-nostalgic cooking style may find solace in news that her and Rtshiladze are looking at a new space in the Perth CBD that will have more than a little Nieuw Ruin DNA sprinkled over it. Watch this space.
But for now, the focus is on sending off the mothership with a bang.
In addition to plans to host a closing party ringing in former staff members, Young will be resurrecting some of Nieuw Ruin’s greatest hits over the next three weeks: think dry-aged dhufish “under a fur coat” (a nod to the Russian layered salad known as shuba made with monkfish that was on the opening menu), devilled livers (a memento from Young’s influential time at Billie H with Alia Glorie) and stuffed pork trotters, a signature dish from legendary French chef Pierre Koffmann.
Nieuw Ruin’s final service will be on Sunday March 15.
Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
