Come behind the scenes at Restaurant Aptos
Step through the towering church doors at Michelin starred Restaurant Aptos to discover how chef Justin James has left no stone unturned.
A stick lands on the table. It’s polka-dotted with vibrant hues of yellow, pink and green – each an intricate puree of native bush food that bursts on the palate like paint on a canvas. Quandong. Muntrie berries. Sunrise and desert lime. Illawarra plum. Then, kangaroo caramel, wattle seed, green ants and Geraldton wax.
Lick the stick. Look around. You’re not in Kansas anymore.
“I don’t have a favourite dish, but if I had to choose one, it’s probably that,” says Justin James, the American expat chef who, after working in some of the world’s top kitchens, has opened Restaurant Aptos in the Adelaide Hills.
“It walks you right into Australia,” he continues. “It’s acidic, a little sweet, a little salty, a little bitter, a little spicy, and to me is the taste of Australia when I came and tasted all those ingredients.”
The stick is the first course of a progressive dining experience comprising 17 “drops” across three levels of the venue – specifically, a renovated 1868 church in Stirling; in more recent decades, the home of Aptos Cruz Galleries.
It’s been years in the making. Backed by hotelier and Hills enthusiast David Horbelt and brought to life by architecture practice Williams Burton Leopardi, Aptos brings together lofty ambition, vision and investment.
When asked how things are going three months in, Justin reflects on his ever-evolving to-do list, rather than the 1500-plus diners who’ve already come through the doors. A wall that needs art; an extra vent in the kitchen; a new boundary-pushing dish.
But that’s just how his brain works.
“I am constantly thinking,” the 40-year-old chef says. “I have so many Post-It notes on my laptop; my Notes app on my iPhone is insane.
“Sometimes, I’ll have this idea – like, something is hanging and you pull it out and it’s swinging back and forth, and you have to eat it off this piece of edible string. And then I’m like: I need a sauce. I’ll be like, I kind of want to do a shellfish thing, and I’m driving home at 2am and think, ‘Oh, these three books might have something to inspire something’, and then I nod off with the cookbook on my lap.”
That’s not to say Justin recalls all the cookbooks he owns – he estimates 600 in his collection. They’re colour coordinated.
Justin doesn’t describe himself as a perfectionist – he prefers: “witty” and “creative”.
“He is absolutely a perfectionist,” says David, who purchased the church in 2024 in a $2.74m deal. “But most perfectionists never get anything done, whereas he continually succeeds.”
David, who also owns Mount Lofty House, Sequoia Lodge and The Lane Vineyard, first encountered Justin’s cooking at Restaurant Botanic – and was “blown away”. He initially tried to lure the chef to Hardy’s Verandah Restaurant at Mount Lofty House, but fast realised “he needed to create his own destination”.
“It’s investing in keeping the chef, who I think is the best chef in Australia at the moment, to stay in Adelaide,” David says.
“It wasn’t necessarily going to be a restaurant in the Adelaide Hills, but my preference is the Adelaide Hills every day of the week because it’s the most undersold region in South Australia and is, in my opinion, the most beautiful region in South Australia.”
At $495 before drinks, the tasting menu at Restaurant Aptos is believed to be the most expensive in Australia. It’s also the first in the southern hemisphere to explore the niche subgenre of dining that uses the building itself as part of the narrative. Rather than remaining seated at one table, guests are escorted through different rooms and floors as the meal progresses – The Library, The Kitchen and The Parlour.
Other restaurants to explore this concept include Frantzén in Sweden, Zén in Singapore and Alchemist in Copenhagen.
The logistics add a layer of complexity. There is a maximum of 14 diners a sitting; there is also 14 staff, including Justin. Parties peel off at different times, staff members move floors, a second sitting commences – and it’s all managed without earpieces or microphones.
“I’ve never worked at a restaurant where you move through dining rooms,” Justin says.
“Someone has got to take you down, so you lose that person upstairs, but then the second person might bring the next party down but come right back – but they can’t come up the stairs in the dining room, so they have to go around the front.
“I jump back and forth, drop a few dishes, say hello to all the guests – it’s quite fun actually.”
Efficiency is key. Justin had an extra door added to The Parlour to shave seconds off a route, which he estimated would save 20 minutes per day – or 80 minutes a week – or $66 in staff fees.
Developing the smooth-moving puzzle was somewhat of a natural progression for the chef who, in his earlier years, studied civil engineering because he “wanted to control the traffic lights”. Since then, he’s worked in such kitchens as Eleven Madison Park in New York and Noma in Copenhagen – both of which have topped the coveted World’s 50 Best Restaurants list – and, closer to home, Restaurant Botanic, for which he garnered national acclaim. Restaurant Botanic seats up to 24 diners.
“I’ve never worked in a 14-seat restaurant, but I’ve been fortunate to travel a good amount of the world and eat at at-least 100 Michelin-star restaurants,” he says. “The ones I’ve seen that have guests around the kitchen counter, they always have 14 seats. So that stuck with me.”
The imminent arrival of global restaurant guide Michelin to South Australia in October is welcome.
“My longest-term goal is to get three Michelin stars,” Justin says. “That’s been my goal for 15 years now.
“We’re not going to change our way if we get a star, or God forbid, two. We’re still going to serve crocodile tongue on a skull; we’re still going to make you lick a stick. I’d rather be unapologetically me and unapologetically Aptos than ever change our experience for any accolade.”
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Skulls, sticks, jaws – it’s all part of Justin’s wild interpretation of native Australia. But there’s intention behind the theatrics.
“I’ve seen the natural depreciation of dining well – people don’t dress up anymore, people have their phones on them, people don’t really chat,” Justin says. “But when you come to Aptos, I try to get you to chat.
“I love looking at the room and there are 14 guests out there, and they’re all laughing. They’re laughing because they’re licking a stick and they’re watching their friend or their family or their partner lick sticks.”
So inspiring was the vision for Restaurant Aptos, a number of chefs moved to South Australia to join the project, including Justin’s head chef, Pierre Verret, who made the leap to Australia from Japan. The pair previously worked together at Melbourne’s Vue de Monde.
“I knew instantly that it would be the experience of a lifetime,” Pierre says.
“So, I packed my belongings and told my wife, Reika, that we were moving to Australia.”
Of course, it’s not just about the food. Much of the magic is in sensory detail, from the custom wallpaper made from a photograph of a Hills forest, to the curated playlists that soundtrack six distinct zones.
Music has long been important to the chef. So, when Bondi-based Atlas Harmonic pitched a sound system so powerful, “if we turned it all the way it’d break the windows”, Justin was all ears. You might hear anything from Madonna to Outkast, to reverential sermons in the bathroom.
There are other secrets to be found. A hidden doorway; an upturned tree. The door handle to Bar Mary – one of two additional bars Justin will soon open within the building – isn’t a handle at all, but a piece of leftover bluestone from the courtyard.
“The whole thinking behind Aptos is, if there’s a way you normally do something, let’s rethink it,” he says.
There’s also the incredible story behind the 400-year-old French oak tables.
“The guys we commissioned to make the tables, they started Googling to find some of this timber,” Justin says. “They found a video from the ’90s, in which the guy was in his 60s or 70s and had all this Parisian oak more than 400 years old, in the country.
“They found the guy, contacted him and asked, ‘Do you still have that?’ He said yes.”
Justin also makes a point of sourcing and designing unique pieces of servingware, going as far as obtaining permits to use real crocodile heads.
While there’s a steady pace to the meal, diners are invited to linger longer within the Aptos universe. A giant teepee and firepits call for nightcaps and, soon, cigars.
“We’ve had guests come in at 5.30pm and they’re the last ones to go, sitting in the tepeee until 1.30am,” Justin says.
“On Sunday we had nine doctors book out a sitting. Those kinds of bookings are common – because you move through the dining rooms, you can basically have a restaurant to yourself for less than what it would cost to hire a venue.”
Bar Cruz, Justin’s more casual 16-seat offering on the ground floor of the church, is set to open in spring. Whisky bar, Bar Mary, will come later, though the space is already available for hire. There’s an outdoor kitchen, too.
It’s all about “creating a place people will travel to”, Justin says.
“Last weekend we had someone fly from Melbourne for one night just to eat here,” he says.
The international market comes next.
“What’s bigger than a restaurant? It’s where you live. That’s where I’m at now,” Justin says. “I want to bring people to SA, but also Australia. If I can contribute in that capacity, I think as a chef I’m doing something pretty cool.
“In today’s world we all need a moment away from our normal life, and that’s what I hope Aptos to be.”
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