{"id":55643,"date":"2025-12-12T06:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/?p=55643"},"modified":"2025-12-09T12:03:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:03:32","slug":"appetiser-lucy-baker-st-albi-bar-eatery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/blog\/appetiser-lucy-baker-st-albi-bar-eatery\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Lucy Baker \u2013 St. Albi Bar & Eatery"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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It was just over ten years ago when restaurateur Lucy Baker first laid eyes on a warehouse in the northern Hobart suburb of Moonah. It was a cold, empty shell with bare concrete panel walls and a steel roof, but Lucy saw potential in the gritty industrial site and took a risk, against all advice, to open a restaurant there. Back then, the Hobart dining scene was centred around the CBD, concentrated around Salamanca Place. No one ventured to eat in the city\u2019s north. A decade on, St Albi<\/a> is a leading light on the southernmost capital\u2019s food scene. And business is booming.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How did you get into hospitality?<\/b><\/p>\n

It all began when I was young. My parents moved our family to Hobart where they purchased the historic Duke of Wellington Hotel. Although life eventually took me back to Melbourne with my mum, hospitality remained a constant thread through my dad\u2019s career. And, in many ways, mine. During school holidays, I would visit my dad (former VFL player Gary Baker) and go to the nightclub within the Duke when it was closed. I would get behind the bar and put glasses through the glass washer and pretend I owned the place. Years later, in my late twenties, I returned again one summer. Dad had bought the popular Rockwall Bar and Grill. He was short-staffed at a function one night and asked me to help. I had no experience. It was nerve-wracking, chaotic, but I was hooked.<\/p>\n

What made you open St Albi in Moonah?<\/b><\/p>\n

I never set out to own my own restaurant but there was a sliding doors moment. Dad took me to a warehouse he owned in Moonah, between the CBD and MONA. It\u2019s an area defined by good, hardworking people. A suburb with honest, industrial, gritty real-life character. Dad looked me in the eye and told me that I had a natural flair for hospitality and that I should have a crack at doing something on my own. Moonah then was not the natural place for a restaurant. When we first floated the idea, people thought we were crazy. \u201cNo one eats north of the flannelette curtain,\u201d they said. But I\u2019d seen the transformation of industrial precincts like Collingwood and Abbotsford in Melbourne. I knew that same sense of revival could happen here too.<\/p>\n

What should we expect at St Albi?<\/b><\/p>\n

A warehouse style space – big, open and buzzing with energy. Everything is on show. It\u2019s welcoming with amber lighting, which offsets the industrial concrete walls. Black leather and timber seating, with timber tables and a huge long bar through the middle. It feels like the home you would love to design. Smooth, attentive service, that makes you feel wanted.<\/p>\n

Tell us about the menu.<\/b><\/p>\n

St Albi is contemporary dining at its finest. We serve modern Australian cuisine with a focus on the grill, offering exceptional food that\u2019s approachable. Our menu has roots in the 1980s, when a Cajun rub on a steak served on a sizzling plate was all the rage – a nod to my mum\u2019s influence at The Duke of Wellington. While we\u2019ve moved away from that sizzling plate, our signature steak rubs remain. We celebrate the taste of Tasmania with seafood chowder, fresh fish of the day and other local produce, while also embracing Asian influences, like our Sichuan fried squid. We are a place where people come for everyday occasions and milestone celebrations.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re known for your hospitality.<\/b><\/p>\n

St Albi is hospitality. When I train our staff, it\u2019s all about feeling. How we make people feel, how we carry ourselves, our body language, how we communicate with guests and each other. I focus on values. I tell our team that when a customer walks in, we are all on 100 points. Every one of us is responsible for maintaining those points. If we don\u2019t greet a guest immediately, that\u2019s minus ten points. If they\u2019re not seated or offered water promptly, that\u2019s another ten. When points are lost, it\u2019s our job to work hard to earn them back. Good service starts before anyone even walks through the door. The garden must be tidy, the footpaths swept. Our team is incredible. Many have been with us almost since St Albi opened 10 years ago. I can teach someone to clear a table or pour wine, but I can\u2019t teach empathy or heart.<\/p>\n

Favourite cuisine<\/b><\/p>\n

I love modern Australian restaurants that tell a story \u2014 that have a real sense of identity, and where every detail has been thought through, from the bathroom to the cocktail list.<\/p>\n

Favourite ingredient<\/b><\/p>\n

I love fresh herbs. They have so much taste and flavour, come straight from the earth and can change a dish fundamentally.<\/p>\n

Favourite beer<\/b><\/p>\n

A crisp lager on a hot day \u2014 or any day, for that matter \u2014 is refreshing and brings people together.<\/p>\n

Favourited wine<\/b><\/p>\n

A beautiful cool-climate Tasmanian pinot noir \u2014 it goes with so many styles of food, or you can simply enjoy a glass on its own.<\/p>\n

Favourite place in Tasmania<\/b><\/p>\n

My favourite place in the world is Possum Bay. Mum and Dad bought a shack on the beach in 1987. I spent my childhood there playing beach cricket, jetty jumping and eating ice cream on hot days. I take my kids there now and look at the same rockpools I did.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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As seen in summer 2025\/26<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSee more<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Lucy Baker grew up around Hobart pubs and later returned to help at her father\u2019s venues, eventually taking on a Moonah warehouse and turning it into St Albi \u2013 a contemporary, welcoming restaurant built on genuine hospitality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-55643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-appetiser"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55643"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56370,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55643\/revisions\/56370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}