Yardbird’s Cait Mitchellhill and Simon Arkless met over a shared passion for food and after spending many years working as renowned international chefs moved to the region in 2012. They opened their Albury restaurant in 2021. Photo: Vanessa Hayden.
Adapting to an ever-shifting food and hospitality landscape has been a challenge, but Yardbird owners Simon Arkless and Cait Mitchellhill have embraced it with resilience.
Since opening in November 2021, the husband-and-wife team has navigated COVID disruptions, regional flooding and the growing pressures of cost-of-living constraints, yet their commitment to their craft and community has kept them moving forward.
“It’s been a roller coaster but I think we’ve done considerably well for a new, and big, venue,” said Simon.
“We opened right at the end of COVID and people had been in lockdown and everybody had money to spend,” said Cait.
“It was a tricky time to open. We opened on a high, but it wasn’t realistic. Then the next year we had flooding in the region and reports in the media that you couldn’t get to Albury, so that slowed things down.
“Last year we were competing with interest rates and this year we have had a longer than normal autumn so we really haven’t had a true indication of what a standard year looks like.”
Challenges are no barrier for the pair who have highly decorated careers as international chefs. They met in the UK nearly 30 years ago through a shared passion for food and moved to Australia in 2002, quickly becoming established in some of Melbourne’s top restaurants.
More recently, they spent 10 years with the Brown siblings, Eliza, Angela and Nick at Wagunyah’s All Saints and St Leonard’s vineyards and Rutherglen’s Thousand Pound Wine Bar with Simon as head chef and Cait moving into a role as operations manager.
But what’s the secret to balancing a marriage and a demanding career in the culinary world? After nearly three decades together, Simon and Cait have mastered the delicate art of working side by side — navigating the pressures of a professional kitchen while preserving the strength of their partnership.
“You try and keep work, work and home, home,” said Cait.
“We also have a similar sense of humor so we still make each other laugh. You’ve got to be able to have a belly laugh with the people you work with.”
Simon said Cait’s own career as a chef meant she had a better understanding than most of what went on behind the scenes.
“Well, I can probably be more brutal because he’s my husband,” she said, laughing.
“He is very passionate about what he does and can sometimes be pretty rigid but I understand where he is coming from because I’ve been there, so if I need to, I can find that middle ground between a customer who is paying and a chef who doesn’t want to ruin a dish by having to change it.”
She said it helped that the front-of-house team could come directly to her with any questions, saving them from needing to step into the kitchen. At the same time, she could bridge the gap by handling more complex queries herself.
“Most of the time I don’t take it personally,” said Simon. “And generally, we are in agreement with most things; it’s rare we disagree.
“It is completely different to working in the UK though and the old days where there was hierarchy; the chef was God and whatever the chef says was law.”
In 2023, Yardbird scored its first Age Good Food Guide chef’s hat, making it number 12 in total for Simon.
Drawing inspiration from the vibrant flavours of Europe and the tradition of cooking over fire, their kitchen is powered by a Mibrasa wood-fired oven from Spain and everything is cooked to order.
They open for lunch Thursday and Friday and dinner Tuesday through to Saturday. Wednesday is “steak night, but not the pub kind” where they offer a different high-quality cut of meat – either long grain or grass fed and will match it with wine for you.
While Yardbird is known for its exceptional dining experience, not everyone realises that you can simply pull up a seat at the bar, enjoy a drink and savor a few snacks — no reservation required. It’s a bit of a best-kept secret, but one that Simon and Cait are eager to share.
“It’s a quiet perk of the venue — an opportunity to soak up the atmosphere and explore the curated wine list without committing to a full dining experience,” said Simon.
Yardbird has carved out its own niche in Albury’s vibrant food scene. But behind the finely tuned kitchen and well curated wine list is a story that’s evolved naturally over time.
“I don’t know if we ever really had a dream of working together, it’s just happened,” Cait said.
Today they employ a team of around 20, many of them “like family”. Some came with them from All Saint’s Terrace Restaurant and others joined early and are still there.
“We are lucky, we have a very stable team,” said Cait.
“We think it’s a good environment for them because we work with them, side by side. If there’s furniture to be moved, cleaning or things to be done in the kitchen, we are there doing it with them, ha, maybe that’s more fool us!” she said, grinning.
