GO NATIVE

A new arrival in Canberra takes flight with a fun-forward blend of native ingredients and Oz nostalgia

- NADIA BAILEY

Wes Heincke and Brady Scholes originally envisioned Corella, recently opened on Braddon’s buzzy Lonsdale Street, as a wine bar. To complement their drinks list, they wanted a tight, snackable menu that centred on native flavours, and tapped chef Nemanja Babič to help develop it. Problem was, when they started messing around in the kitchen, they had too much fun coming up with the goods. So, a pivot: a bigger menu, more generous opening hours, and a new dining spot was born.

The look of the room skews Euro chic, all bentwood and terrazzo, arched windows and mood lighting. But look closer. The flowers? Almost exclusively natives. And that cool blue-green hue on the walls? It might suggest the colour of eucalypts, but was actually inspired by an old car Heincke once owned. Which is to say, Corella embodies a very Australian reverence for things that lack pretension.