Located on the ground level of a high-rise apartment block in Sydney’s inner east suburb of Zetland, Chef Mark Jensen and business partners Joel Kapz and Joe Ward have created a Rocky Mountain themed chalet style eatery called Salmon & Bear, which serves delicious seafood cooked over charcoal alongside traditional fish shop favourites.

“This is a new market and I’m really excited about it,” says Jensen.  “We really wanted to do something that delivered good value, and that had point of difference.  We wanted the restaurant to evoke a sense of adventure, camping, excitement, discovery, wilderness…….. all those kinds of things.. We were thinking along the lines of salmon, bear, hunting, fishing, that’s how the whole thing came together.”

Business Partner Joel Kapz had experienced the Mibrasa charcoal oven in a cooking demonstration in Melbourne and was keen for it to be part of the new setup. “Joel is the ideas guy, and he saw the Mibrasa charcoal oven at a demonstration, he called me and asked if I thought it would be suitable to cook seafood and here we are,” says Jensen.

Head Chef Mark Jensen had almost a year to play around and test the Mibrasa Charcoal Oven before the restaurant opened, allowing for a lot of product development and understanding how to cook over charcoal.

“The whole idea of cooking over charcoal still excites me because the subtle flavour it imparts in the seafood is just fantastic,” said Jensen. “Our hero product is now the Mibrasa fish; we call it a grizzly plate.”

The aroma of the Mibrasa oven slowly cooking the meal over coals, the intimate log cabin setting, and the fine selection of craft beer on tap is definitely ticking all the boxes with Sydney siders.

Watch our interview at Salmon & Bear below.