Another week and another fabulous venue opening in Palm Beach. When will this sprawling suburb slow down in churning out even more reasons for us to spoil our tastebuds? To be fair, it doesn’t look like any time soon — however, any excuse to part with our hard-earned cash in the name of great food and superb drinks is something we are more than comfortable living with. Fresh on the scene at the southern side of Palm Beach is the newly-opened Scott’s Luncheonette & Bar.

Firstly, it’s worth mentioning the brains behind this fit-out is a bit of a hospitality legend in their own right. Scott Perry is a highly awarded mixologist who worked his way across Europe and the USA many moons ago with a notable stint in London’s iconic Milk and Honey bar, before opening up Euro Lounge Bar/Eatery The Lark in Brisbane a little more than a decade ago. More recently, he’s been involved in the festival scene and ensuring revellers have the best drinks possible, overseeing bar operations across local favourite, Splendour in the Grass. To say Perry knows hospitality inside out is probably putting it mildly, so what has he got in store for us at Scott’s?

The small but welcoming whitewashed 40-seater space is minimalistic and the opportune spot to evade the heat of the day, with some high tables close to the street and lower tables to the rear. By their admission, they want the vibe to be a relaxed Italian-style panino bar that hinges their entire offering on the three pillars of coffee, sandwiches, and wine. Meaning the space is welcoming you from breakfast right on through to sunset with taste sensations the entire way.

The menu splits itself in two, with Brekky Sangas available from 7am till noon, and then Sangas & Salad from 10am for the rest of the day.

The Brekky Sangas consist of their standard sanga of pillowy soft scrambled eggs, hot hash browns and fresh spinach on Ciabatta with optional extras of bacon & house brown sauce, smoked salmon & lemon mayonnaise or grilled halloumi.

The Sangas & Salad showcase some New York deli-style classics such as Leg Ham with provolone cheese, tomato & in-house pickles or the Mexican Pork with spiced slow cooked pork (8 hour), pickled red onion, salsa rossa, crushed corn chips, crumbled feta & Oaxaca cheese, served with pork broth for dipping.

If you’re beginning to salivate by reading that last paragraph, don’t worry, it’s quite normal. These are some serious examples of epic sandwiches, and when you take your first bite into any one of Scott’s creations, you’ll know the difference right away.

Drinks-wise they have three brightly coloured made in-house cold press juices, expertly poured espresso and a small collection of allocated wines. These bottles vary from small Australian producers right through to unique European appellations; grab a glass or get yourself into a bottle: munching away on ciabatta sandwiches with vino in hand is quite the Italian look, let us tell you.

Perry wants Scott’s to be the place you can drop in for a bite at breakfast time, a gourmet sandwich for lunch or a grazing-style experience through the afternoon. The menu also features a charcuterie selection, gorgonzola chips and a cheese platter to end all other cheese platters available from 3pm weekdays and 12pm on weekends. And with a cocktail menu in development — featuring an array of classic spritzes — Scott’s has set the bar pretty high. Drop-in and sample the goods, but be warned — you may never look at a sandwich the same way again.

Hours: Wednesday: 7am — 3pm, Thursday-Saturday: 7am — late, Sunday: 7am — sunset (Closed Monday & Tuesday)
Where: Shop 1, 1114 Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach

Words by Alex Mitcheson.

The HOTA Gallery opening caused quite the stir on the Gold Coast, and when we found out that the Executive Chef of the high-anticipated Palette restaurant was Dayan Hartill-Law, they had every reason to get excited. Dayan has a long resume with vast industry experience including The Star, The Press Club, Dinner by Heston, Vanitas and Quay, meaning he will bring an international pedigree of learning from some of the best chefs across the world – lucky us! Read on to find out a bit more about Palette and the man himself.

How long have you been a Gold Coast local?
My family and I relocated to the Gold Coast 5 years ago now.

Tell us a bit about your career to date.
Coming up on 20 years as a chef, I have been on a perpetual pursuit to work with the best chefs and thinkers around the globe. More recently running prolific spaces like The Press Club in Melbourne and Vanitas at Palazzo Versace. There have been many formative years in my culinary education, working for great chefs like Peter Gilmore at Quay, Heston Blumenthal at Dinner by Heston and many others.

What career achievement are you most proud of?
I think there have been many not to sound obnoxious. I think my very first solo hat was great to attain, it sits on my kitchen wall at home as a reminder of the hard work. But I also love hearing from chefs that I have had under me in the past succeeding in their own right or repeat guests coming in time after time to enjoy what my team and I do.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Inspiration honestly comes from everywhere, whether walking through my neighbourhood and seeing what natives are fruiting or flowering, which I love to pick with my son. There’s also obvious inspiration that comes from my cookbook library. But the most inspirational thing for me now is being permanently surrounded by art; the way that certain pieces will spark an inspirational thought or a movement, it is a really great privilege to be surrounded by it every day.

What is your favourite dish to cook at home?
I really enjoy labouring over a ramen, spending the entire day working on it is wonderful, and to take from Ivan Orkin there are no rules with ramen so it can be anything, having done a Peking duck ramen, Hainanese chicken ramen, the warmth it brings to the soul is everything.

What excites you the most about Palette being part of the HOTA precinct?
The continuation of the precinct being all about arts is such an amazing thing to be a part of and to know that culinary art is held in such high regard, to be able to have Palette stand symbiotically alongside performing arts, and visual arts is amazing and to integrate the three together is really quite an amazing thing to be apart of. With plans to integrate the three with inclusive experiences in the coming months, it is really wonderful to be able to work with talented artists and creatives to think outside of the box to create wonderful cultural experiences for the Gold Coast and its visitors.

Which dish on the menu would you recommend is a must-try when visiting Palette, and why?
There are so many great features on the menu at the moment, the Fraser Island Spanner crab, watermelon radish, pandanus, blue quandong and lemon myrtle is my favourite from a chefs perspective. There are 45 movements on the plate which is pretty ridiculous when you have to do 100. The Voronoi, Little Cocoa chocolate, flavours of banoffee is also a really fun dish from its aesthetic, it was actually the very first dish I conceptualised when I learnt that I was successful in getting the position with HOTA. We have multiple fun things throughout the whole menu though, from Vegan fish sauce to Davidson Plum sorbet, Hervey Bay scallops, or the dry-aged Burrawong Gaian ducks that everyone is raving about.

What are your Gold Coast favourites…
Café: Being on the northside, it’s been so great to have Bear Boy open in Helensvale. We also love to go to Daark in Chirn Park.
Coffee spot: If I am running about in the shopping centres, Foster Black always hits the spot, but also Shakermaker and Blackboard are excellent.
Restaurant: Having two small ones, dining out is not as frequent as it once was, but I love to go and see Tim and Shannon at the North Room. Adam and Tim at Yamagen are doing some great things, but the most frequent restaurant for us because my son won’t eat any other beef than wagyu (must be nice) we are always at Wagyu-ya on Chevron.
Bar or pub for a drink: I am not really a big drinker but that being said, I have been a big fan of Tom Angel for many years, so looking forward to trying his entire menu on a Sunday afternoon at The Exhibitionist Bar. Plus the guys at Rosellas are doing some great things, as are the team at Nightjar and the Scottish Prince are also really pushing the envelope.

How do you choose to spend your weekends?
Spending time with the family is the most important thing being in this industry, you lose a lot of nights at home, which is never fun. But, on those weekend days I try to jam in as much in as possible.

With us all trying to (somehow) muddle our way through this 21st century we live in, along with being in the midst of a pandemic, we can often forget to ‘stop and smell the roses’, AKA appreciate the little things in life. And sadly that sometimes means the simple act of laughing. So what better time to catch up with long-time Gold Coast local, and worldly ‘Happy Human’, Scott Williams. From humble beginnings, this self-made character now shares his love of life and happiness with people across the world. We get to know his story and his local favourites.

How long have you been a Gold Coast local?
I have called the Gold Coast home since 1976. That’s a long time! It is on the GC that I met my wife Angie (the year I arrived, in early 1976) and it’s also where our son Oliver was born. The Gold Coast is where I got my early ‘show business break’ – so I have a lot to thank the GC for.

Tell us a bit about your career to date.
The year my family arrived on the GC I did grade 11 at Keebra Park High School. In the Christmas holidays of that 1976 I met hypnotist Ronricco, a Gold Coast icon. He would tour the world most of the year and always come home to the GC for Christmas, usually doing shows somewhere. In 1976/1977 Christmas season, he was performing at the old Pacific Hotel in Southport. I ended up getting a job with him and never made it back to grade 12! My first newspaper article was in the Gold Coast Bulletin in January of 1977! I was thrilled. It was a picture of Ronricco and myself outside the Celebrity Room at the Broadbeach International Hotel. I toured the world with Ronricco for 5 years, learning my craft. I started as Ronricco’s stage manager and was encouraged by Ronricco to develop a magic act. My girlfriend at the time, and now wife, Angie finished Grade 12 (she’s the smart one in the family!) and joined us as we toured Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the UK. She made an excellent magic assistant! Meeting Ronricco on the Gold Coast in 1976 fundamentally changed the direction of my life.

Following my time with Ronricco I secured a job at The Magic Castle, Nobbys Beach with another world-famous act and GC icon, International escapologist and magician Arthur Coghlan. Arthur gave me the opportunity to work with large-scale illusions and I performed regularly with Arthur in the magic theatre for a number of years. Later when it became Magic Mountain I was invited back and performed there again until it closed in 1987, the year Oliver, my son, was born. International touring became difficult with a young family so Angie and I decided to stay on the Coast and I moved into the corporate arena, performing magic and then stand-up comedy. I did that for over 30 years. Facilitation of conferences and conventions at home and abroad also became an important part of my career. In my busiest times, I was often doing around 100 flights a year, so it was all go, go, go! In the last few years, the opportunity to be a part of the cruise ship industry opened up to me and I thoroughly enjoyed performing on many unique vessels all over the world. Of course, everything came to a crashing holt when COVID came along. But like others, during COVID, I decided to explore other ways I could continue my craft; which is when I set up a home broadcast studio and emceed some events virtually as well as recording a weekly tip talk on happiness called “A minute on happiness.”

What career achievement are you most proud of?
Probably my ability to evolve to meet new markets and demands. From magic to comedy, to conference facilitation and then into corporate speaking with ‘The Happy Human’. The ability to adapt and change has given me a long and very interesting career that has lasted for 40 years – so I am very thankful for that.

What do you love the most about making people laugh?
It’s a tough world out there sometimes, and the more stressed we become the less we tend to laugh. So to have the ability to make a positive contribution to people’s lives through laughter is truly a blessing. Clean comedy has always been the basis of my shows, and to hear someone say “I can’t believe I have laughed so hard for an hour and not heard a swear word “ is a great return on my investment.

Why is laughing so important?
Laughter releases endorphins, one of the ‘feel good’ chemicals produced naturally in the body. This chemical elevates our mood and gives us a warm glow! We interpret that glow as a sense of happiness. When we feel happy, a perception of hope is created. So laughter effectively becomes a’ hope generator’ for us, and that is really important because, without hope, life just feels like a grind.

If you had to give people some advice, what would that be?
I love to quote Dennis Prager who said: “Don’t let compliments go to your head and don’t let insults go to your heart”. That sums it up nicely. Sometimes we take ourselves and others too seriously and it can backfire on us.

Tell us your best joke!
Are you trying to steal my act? Seriously, there are so many jokes I love and I have probably forgotten more jokes than I can remember now at 61! I love the silly one-liners like: “What do you call a Woolworths Supermarket that’s burnt down?”. . . . “Coles” (coals – get it)!

What are your Gold Coast favourites…
Cafe: There are so many on the Coast that do a terrific job. It depends where I am on the day. The last cafe I visited was Paddock Bakery at Burleigh and they always use wonderfully fresh ingredients in their creations.  A favourite for a late breakfast.
Coffee spot: Anywhere that proudly brandishes a Merlo coffee sign! Usually, I grab a coffee at Merlo Brickworks when I pick up a bag of their ‘private’ blend coffee beans! – I live for coffee!
Restaurant: Indian Empire at Runaway Bay has been a firm favourite for many years and has won numerous awards. Delicious Indian food! Brooklyn Depot in Surfers is also a great stop for a quick lunch. My physio just told me to check out Brazilian Flame Bar and Grill in Surfers Paradise so that will be next on the list to try.
Bar or pub for a drink:  Anywhere that serves Los Sundays Tequila!
How do you choose to spend your weekends?
I have become a keen baker and love making sourdough loaves and chewy New York-style bagels. Also, I like long walks with Angie around the Paradise Point waterfront and maybe into one of the cafes there for something yummy!