South Australian winery Bird in Hand will open its new restaurant at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens next month following a major $7.6 million redevelopment of the gardens.
The winery will operate multiple food establishments including a restaurant, tasting room and kiosk at Australia’s second oldest botanic gardens.
Deputy Premier Guy Barnett said the upgrades represent the most significant improvements in decades for the site, which attracts more than 400,000 visitors annually.
“Bird in Hand is the successful investor here at the Botanical Gardens in Hobart and will be able to showcase some of the best of the best food and wine and gourmet products that you can possibly imagine,” he said.
“We welcome Bird in Hand with much enthusiasm and are excited to see them showcase our exceptionally diverse produce.”
The new venue will feature casual and fine dining options, event spaces, a wine-tasting room, retail offerings and an outdoor takeaway kiosk.
Bird in Hand already has strong Tasmanian connections, establishing vineyards in Seymour on the east coast in 2020 and leasing a vineyard in the Tamar Valley.
Founder Andrew Nugent said his family has long held an affinity with Tasmania.
“First and foremost, we were attracted … in Tasmania because it’s the best sparkling wine region in Australia and obviously we sell a lot of wine and a lot of sparkling wine and we really wanted to make sure we had a strong presence down here,” he said.
“We wanted a presence down here in Hobart and we want to be part of the wonderful food and wine scene that Tasmania is so famous for so hopefully we can do this wonderful state and wonderful site and garden justice.”
Construction on the visitor centre and restaurant upgrades began in October, with the Welcome Hub already refurbished including new roofing, cladding and utility improvements completed in September.
Barnett said all improvements were planned to minimise impacts on the gardens’ natural, cultural and Aboriginal heritage values.
Gardens Chairman Daniel Leesong said the refurbishments were a milestone moment for the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.
“It’s many years in the making,” he said.
“Not only has the government invested many millions of dollars, we’ve also seen a private operator in Bird In Hand which is an outstanding operator, an internationally acclaimed operator also invests millions of dollars as well.”
“So we’re seeing a facility which we individually could never ever have possibly imagined simply by leveraging the generous support and generous development of a private operator.”
