James Connolly on board for new Perth venue

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Opening on December 1 this year, Long Chim is the first Australian restaurant for celebrated chef David Thompson since his days at Sailors thai in Sydney in the late 1990s.

The venue is located in the State Buildings in Perth and will feature a big focus on the bar. To that end, they’ve recruited veteran Perth bartender and bar manager James Connolly (ex-Angel’s Cut, Enrique’s School For To Bullfighting) to run the bar program.

We spoke to Connolly about what we can expect from the bar and from Long Chim.

Tell us a bit about Long Chim?
We’re based in the newly renovated State Buildings in the Perth CBD. Long Chim Perth is chef David Thompson’s little corner of Bangkok in West Australia. Long Chim roughly translates as “come and taste”, its his collection of authentic Thai street food recipes collected over many years.

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What’s your role? What plans do you have for the drinks?
I’m the Bar manager, [and] we are going to bring the flavours of Thailand to the cocktail drinkers of Perth. We work with Jason Williams and the guys at Proof & Co, also Jay Gray at Long Chim Singapore has been a great help. The drinks will be fun and exciting with elements of Thai culture and cuisine in them… and of course there will be lashings of gin!

What excites you about this project?
A couple of things, working with one of the worlds best chefs is not something you get the opportunity to do every day.

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Pushing myself in terms of working with new flavours, new cultures and new techniques. The venue looks and feels amazing, the food is super tasty, and all the crew both at Long Chim and the State Buildings are incredible professionals and very friendly too.

How big is the bar aspect of Long Chim?
Its definitely a bar/restaurant. We have a large courtyard and full walk up bar, we have tap beer, bottled beer, a back bar full of spirits (some speciality Thai ones coming soon) and a ripper of a wine list.
The bar team is shaping up well most the guys have been managers at other bars and like myself are here to learn, grow and have a real good time, serve some banging drinks!

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