Founder & Managing Director of the Grill’d Group Simon Crowe has announced the opening of a brand-new burger restaurant, Williams, in Westfield Sydney.
Headed by Crowe’s friend and Grill’d executive Shane Pigdon, the new burger business is called Williams, a first and middle name that has been in the Crowe and Pigdon families for five generations.
The new venture is an independent business that operates completely separately to Grill’d, despite being backed by the group’s experience.
“Shane and I wanted to create a completely new burger concept that isn’t restricted or restrained in any way and is representative of the way Australians are trying to live today,” says Crowe.
Designed in partnership with leading architects Design Office and creative agency Moffitt.Moffitt, Williams has a smart casual, clean-line aesthetic with a large open kitchen and relaxed seating for 80. Dine in and take-away are available.
“Williams is a sophisticated yet simple burger experience that’s intimate and all about painstaking craftsmanship and amazing quality and taste,” says Crowe.
The menu, developed by Pigdon and Grill’d Menu Innovation manager Josh Powell (ex-Vue de Monde, Circa and The Fat Duck), features a concise range of house-made burgers, salads, sides, sodas and shakes, and a curated list of Australian beers, cider and wines.
For Pigdon, a great burger is all about the pattie and the quality and integrity of it. His focus is on ingredients from producers such as O’Connor beef, Mayura Station Full Blood Wagyu, Summertime chicken and Fish Butchery’s yellowfin tuna.
“Each day, lettuces are washed and cut, ripe tomatoes and vegetables sliced, secret relish and mayo house-made, cucumbers pickled, cheese grated, and sides prepared daily and cooked to order. Sodas are blended and old-fashioned style milk shakes, made from real ingredients, are churned,” he says.
There are plans for up to 15 Williams restaurants to open around Australia over the next three years, with one scheduled to launch in Melbourne’s South Yarra in October 2019.
Open seven days from 11am, Williams is located at Level 5, Westfield Sydney,188 Pitt Street