Penrith’s newest dining venue, Long’s House, has officially opened, offering perfectly aged wines, delicious food, and unmatched views.
Vince Capolupo and Richard Kelaher have been friends for over 30 years, and have long aspired to open a restaurant together, with Capolupo the owner of Lakeside Restaurant in the Regatta Centre, and Kelaher a self-proclaimed lover of food and wine.
For the last six years, they’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity, which they found in the historic Long’s House.
“When this came up, I just thought it was perfect. It had the right feel, the right vibe,” Capolupo said.
The menu has a contemporary Australian theme, with some European delights.
But, the owners’ pride and joy is the extensive wine list, which is soon to be finalised, and will feature a variety of options including some of their own personal favourites.
With this, they’re hoping to bring something different to Penrith’s dining scene.
“It’s hard to find restaurants with aged wine, or wine at the right time to drink, plus a menu that matches such wine,” Kelaher said.
Capolupo is one of the area’s longest standing restaurant owners, and he’s hoping to bring some of his expertise to the new venue, as well as some of the aspects that people love most, including Kelaher and his daughter.
“My daughter is 13 now, but ever since she was a kid, she was going to Lakeside, and that was ‘our restaurant’. It was more casual, more open, easy to get to, and we loved it. But, as she grew up, we’d ask what she wants for take out, and she’d still say, ‘I want to go to Uncle Vince’s’,” Kelaher said.
“That’s the feeling we want, when someone wants to go there.”
The benefit of these similarities is that with it becoming almost impossible for diners to visit Lakeside during the summer due to functions and weddings taking place, Long’s House becomes the next best thing.
“We’ve had at least 30 people that wanted to book for Lakeside for lunch or dinner, and we had to say, ‘Sorry, we’ve got an engagement or a wedding that day, but
Long’s House just opened’, and they could come over,” Capolupo said.
These similarities also come from the team, with manager Rachel Duncan and head chef Martin Wrighton coming on board at the new venue.
“Rachel has been with me for about nine years, and Martin was my first chef at Lakeside. He was with me for about six years and then he went to pursue other personal interests, and now we’ve come back together again,” Capolupo said.
However, the duo assures there will be plenty of differences between the two, promising big things in the works utilising their vast outdoor space, and partnership with neighbouring Sydney Helicopters.
“Mark and Lisa Harold, the owners of the property, also own Sydney Helicopters, and we’re going to do tour packs. People will be able to have breakfast here, Mark could fly them to the Hunter Valley, bring them back, and hopefully have a nice dinner with the wine that they bought,” he said.
“We’re also looking at doing jazz days, flower classes, pottery classes, chocolate days, wine days, utilising the space we have and setting up marquees with samples.”
Having now been open for a week, Capolupo and Kelaher said that reception has been overwhelming, but they can’t wait to see more people come through the doors.
“We’re totally overwhelmed, and so, so thankful,” he said.
“Especially in this economic climate, we just didn’t know what to expect, and it’s so hard to gauge how many things to order – thankfully we didn’t run out of food!
“We just want to keep that interest by being flexible, being adaptable to requests, and having constant changes, maybe adding something new to the menu every few months.”
The venue is open for breakfast and lunch every day, as well as dinner from Wednesday to Saturday.
Long’s House is at 81/151 Old Castlereagh Road, Castlereagh.
Visit http://www.longshouse.com.au.
Cassidy Pearce
Cassidy Pearce is a news and entertainment journalist with The Western Weekender. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, she has previously worked with Good Morning Macarthur and joined the Weekender in 2022.