What are awescapes – and how are venues using them to appeal to diners?

When diners are looking for more than just a menu, how do we create a sense of ‘awe’ in a hospitality setting? InSeason spoke to three businesses about how they create complete ‘awescapes’. 

Left: The chandelier private dining room at Tweed River House. Right: Owner and manager Gregory Lording. (Images: Tweed River House.)

Touching all the senses 

“We designed the restaurant to create this bigger sense of experience,” says Gregory Lording, owner and manager of Tweed River House in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, where they have turned a 100-year-old house into a dining destination.  

“You definitely feel that sense of largeness and awe with the location,” he tells InSeason. While the location was a drawcard, for Lording it’s not just about the riverside setting and the rolling vistas of the hinterland. For him, creating a sense of awe is about touching all the senses and creating experiences within the venue that facilitate that.  

“Food obviously is the number one thing,” he says. “But we decided the secret ingredient is a sense of experience, and particularly coming through COVID, I think people gravitate more towards beauty, feelings, escapism. We want to be transported from whatever we’ve gone through to something that gives us a sense of wonder. 

So, we created a dining experience that is based on three integral parts; 

Beautiful food, a beautiful physical environment [outside], and a beautiful service environment [inside].”  

The menu is based on what Lording describes as ‘pretty food’ full of French influences. The interior design is 1930’s colonial, with custom furniture and restored original features, and the landscape around the house is a natural wonder that is drawn inside through views and motifs, including distinctive palm trees etched onto glassware. The venue is divided into spaces that allow appreciation of the different aspects of the natural environment – from the lawn bar to the verandah. But according to Lording, if you want to create an awe-inspiring experience, you need to touch all the senses.  

“Guests simply know that it’s a full experience, even when they walk in the door, we have our own atomiser spray that is very subtle. It’s all layered and that’s what people say they love about it.”  With 65% of their customers driving more than an hour to enjoy the experience, Tweed River House has worked hard to strike a balance between hospitality and awe.  

Left: The magical landscape surrounding Farm & Co. Kingscliff. Right: Mike Wilson, founder of Founder of PLB Group. (Images: Sal Singh Photography.)

Bringing the outside in and making the most of your location 

Also in the Tweed Shire in NSW, Mike Wilson and his team at Farm & Co. Kingscliff work on a similar premise of making the surroundings part of the experience. Having taken over the restaurant of a working farm property, guests come not just to dine, but to take part in farm walks, chicken feeding and pick-your-own-sunflower harvests. The farm business is separate from the restaurant, but for many guests the two are entwined.  

“When you get everything working together you can create a sense of magic, whether it’s sitting on a crate in a Melbourne alleyway, or at a fine diner,” says the founder of PLB Group. 

“It’s almost mystical to a guest, they might not even understand what’s happening, but they just know they’ve had one of the great experiences of their life.”  

At Farm & Co., being surrounded by the real workings of a farm and knowing that some of the produce on the menu has come from the fields, again brings a sense of awe by allowing guests to enjoy the outside environment inside the venue.  

While the farm can only supply some of the restaurant’s needs, there’s still a huge sense of connection created. Wilson says the full experience draws customers and shapes how they interact with the venue. “It’s in the way they dress, who they bring; they come for that experience and they feel safe within it.” Like Lording, Wilson sees the combination of elements as important to creating a sense of awe.  

“Chefs will tell you it’s the food, bartenders will say drinks, landlords will tell you it’s location. But my job is to piece that together and create an experience that feels truly magic.”  

Left: The Grounds of Alexandria is known for curating unique customer experiences. Right: Founder Ramzey Choker. (Images: The Grounds of Alexandria.)

Knowing your limits and that size isn’t everything 

It’s important to note, however, that this sense of awe doesn’t require a rural setting to be achieved. It can certainly be done in urban environments, as Sydney’s The Grounds of Alexandria has proved for over a decade.  

Founder Ramzey Choker originally designed the now internationally acclaimed green spaces to reflect his mum’s farm background. What developed was a sprawling green space, complete with rooms that cross boundaries from indoor to outdoor and back, and include herb gardens, animals, markets, blooming flower installations and themed alleyways.  

“I’ve certainly seen the demand rise after COVID,” Choker says. “People are really not settling for what they used to. We all need bigger experiences,” he says.  

While Choker acknowledges that finding a space as large as The Grounds of Alexandria within the city is hard, he’s adamant that size isn’t key when creating that sense of awe. Instead, he agrees that it’s about creating an all-encompassing experience and having the stamina to regularly update it to keep customers coming back. “People need more thoughtful experiences,” he says. “It’s real and it’s nature, it’s beautiful. It’s what people are looking for when so much is concrete and apartments and offices.”  

For Choker it’s about finding what you can manage and sustain within your budget and available skills. It’s not realistic for venues to have access to horticulturalists, stylists and florists, but awe can still be cultivated on a smaller scale, as long as it’s real and well maintained.  

“It’s about the environment giving you the sense that you have time. Time to sit there and connect with one another and bigger things.” And again, it comes back to touching all the senses.  

“It’s important in a lot of businesses but especially in hospitality. That’s my walk in the morning, thinking ‘does everything look beautiful, does it smell nice, does it feel nice?’ In its simplest terms you can follow the five senses to create the experience.”