Brothers Grant and Spencer Kells, pictured, left to right, have opened a Flint Dining Room in Bangkok, re-creating the New Acton restaurant that was destroyed in a fire in 2011.
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Grant Kells says the 80-seater restaurant that opened in the centre of Bangkok in January is identical in many ways to the Canberra place, down to the design and furniture, some of the key dishes, including Sichuan lamb rack, and pear and gorgonzola pizza. It also has a wood-fired oven, and is branded as a modern Australian restaurant.
Spencer moved to Bangkok with his Thai wife 3½ years ago, and has been working in hotels, but was keen, Grant Kells says, to get back into his own restaurant. Grant Kells is busy with Smoque in Canberra, but heading to Bangkok every three months to help out. The pair have wealthy backers and hope, he says, to open more Flints in Asia – although not until they've done a full year with the new place.
In Canberra, Grant Kells also has expansion plans. He's bought a new smoker for his American-style casual diner, Smoque, to boost the quantity of meat he can prepare. The new Texan smoker can handle 500 kilograms of meat a day, he says, compared with 120 kilograms for the previous machine. This means more consistency in the product – they struggled to keep up with demand before – and allows them to supply Smoque off-shoot cafes. So he's looking at opening in Belconnen and Tuggeranong.
