Built on the ceremonial grounds of good food and good friendship, Hope St radio has grown from a small community radio station into a culinary institution of the most calm and casual kind. Looping friends into every fold of the business from the architectural design and wine to the music and event curation, the venue isn’t just a place to get a good snack, it's a place to make lasting memories. Host to an absurd portfolio of events ranging from shibari rope tying classes, to life drawing and avant guard sound gigs, the space is impossible to type cast. In essence, it still holds the curatorial range and welcoming feeling of its community radio station roots, except everything gets bigger and better as time goes on. They’re unafraid to adapt, and you can taste that in the ever-changing menu and high rotation of musical taste makers as well. We sat down with Jack and Pete in Pete's house to hear the goss about what happens behind the scenes and what’s next for them.
How did you two meet? Was it love at first sight?
Jack: We met over a joint at a pizza place when Pete was running Hope St as an itinerant radio station. We made fast friends trying to impress each other with fancy bottles of wine to share. Without any doubt, it was love at first sight.
What’s the best dinner party you have ever thrown?
Pete: I think probably a long lunch on a long table alfresco at our old Knox place in Eltham. A friend Mashara ran it with me (Jack also helped). We did Eclade de Moules, a technique of cooking mussels under piles of pine needles which are then set alight. It was invented by fishermen in Provence. It was very dramatic/romantic.
Is food and cooking a love language for you?
Jack: Absolutely, and in so many ways. Love is an ingredient (sounds woo woo but is fact). Food is such a porous vessel and soaks up whatever it is that the person who is cooking is feeling and intending. You truly can taste when something is cooked with love. Even a burnt sausage in a bit of old bread that might objectively be a bit shit can bring you such warmth and joy if it was prepared with love. Cooking is such a powerful love language - it can hold memories/history/tradition, it can be risky, it can be a grand gesture of a decadent roast with all of the trimmings, or it can be a small daily affirmation of eggs in the morning. Even paying mind to ordering at a restaurant is a gesture of love. Food and love are intrinsically linked which is why I will always be obsessed with both of them.
If you could eat one last meal, what would your final three courses be?
Pete: Maybe fresh bread and Vitello tonnato to start with a bottle of Francois Raveneau grand cru Chablis, followed by steak frites with Bernaise and green leaves and a perfect roast chicken with braised greens and gravy, paired with 2002 Domaine de La Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti Grand Cru, and then a creme brûlée for dessert with a cold beer and might as well do comte and sherry to finish as I’m dying anyway.
How has your relationship with food informed your friendships and social life?
Pete: Having kids young meant being able to bring people to us was essential in maintaining a lot of friendships in those first few years of parenthood. The promise of good food made it a lot easier to get people over on the weekends. Most of my friends aren’t really hospo people but pretty much all of them are wonderful cooks. We all love it and often will spend weekends away that revolve completely around what we are cooking/eating.
What’s the best food and travel experience you’ve ever had?
Jack: A couple of years ago in Sanur in Bali, I got to watch Pete eat a meal of fried fish, fish head soup, and rice. The restaurant only serves this one set meal. The day we went we were eating parts of a huge and shimmering looking mackerel. The fried fish was oily and rich, and the soup was powerful with tamarind, turmeric, and chilli; but balanced and pretty with spices and lemongrass. We drank huge beers and glasses of orange juice. The meal itself was fantastic - among the most delicious I’ve ever eaten, but watching Pete enjoy it as much as he did is what made it one of my favourite meals ever. He had the biggest and goofiest smile that got bigger with every mouthful and was making such funny noises that sounded like someone doing a character of an old fat gourmand. We still talk about it all the time.
If you had your own cooking show what would be the theme/creative brief?
Pete: Relaxing and beautifully shot.
Tell us one of Hope Street’s best kept secrets/scandals?
Jack: Despite our best efforts we’re rich in scandals and have very few secrets! One secret that isn’t so well kept is that if you find Pete or I working behind the bar and ask us very nicely - we’ll take you downstairs to choose a bottle from our cellar, which is home to a great deal of very special wine that isn’t on the list, and will probably give you a discount if you let us have a taste.
What is your biggest dream for Hope street? Where would you like to take it next?
Pete: I think a cremolata shop in Sicily that was also a live broadcast HSR channel would be fun.
Photographed and interviewed by Shannon May Powell
SHOP PETE AND JACK'S FAVS HERE