EDITION 20
St Lucia: Escape to Latin America on Honeysuckle
For anyone who has spent time on the Honeysuckle waterfront, The Kingfish and Blanca are familiar names — venues built on the belief that a night out should feel like an occasion. St Lucia (pronounced “SAHN-TAH loo-SEE-ah”) is the latest opening from Garry and Melissa Risteski, and it takes that idea somewhere warmer, louder and considerably smokier.
Hospitality has always been part of the couple’s story. Garry learnt the trade from his father, who ran Ocean Blues in Budgewoi, where the family spent decades in fish and chips. “At the heart of it, we’ve always loved making people happy,” he says. The Kingfish followed in 2018, and with it a realisation: “I didn’t want to stop at one venue. I wanted to keep creating, growing, and bringing new experiences to the community we grew up in.”
Blanca came next, then The Swordfish Co at Budgewoi and Warners Bay. Their strengths complement each other: Melissa brings business focus and financial savvy with a natural eye for creativity and interior design, while Garry is an entrepreneur at heart, thinking about what’s next usually before the current project is finished.
There’s something special about being by the water. It creates an energy and atmosphere that makes people want to linger.
With St Lucia, the obvious framing is a gap in the city’s dining scene — but that’s not how the Risteskis see it. “It wasn’t necessarily about what Newcastle was missing,” Melissa says. “It was about what we felt Newcastle deserved — beautiful, experience-led dining in incredible surroundings. Newcastle has everything it needs to be a genuine foodie destination, and we want to play a part in making that happen.”
There are elements that perhaps shouldn’t work together, yet somehow come together in perfect harmony. The entire venue has been a labour of love.
Naming the venues falls to Melissa, who goes down what she calls “rabbit holes” until she finds something that rolls off the tongue. She started with the Caribbean island, found the name repeated across Latin countries, and stopped when she learnt that Saint Lucia is the only sovereign nation in the world named after a woman.
The intention starts before guests reach the door. “We want them to feel that sense of anticipation that something special is about to happen,” Garry says. Inside, a partially open kitchen anchors the room, framed by intricate hand-laid tiling, ceiling sails and handmade furniture. St Lucia, he says, is really the sum of all its parts: “There are elements that perhaps shouldn’t work together, yet somehow come together in perfect harmony. The entire venue has been a labour of love.”
Much of the menu comes off the flame. “Cooking over fire is visually beautiful, but more importantly it creates incredible depth of flavour,” Garry says — a smokiness and character that suits a share-style menu built around the grill, the sea and the earth.
The Asado Lamb Skewers were the surprise. “They’ve become one of those dishes people recommend to each other,” Garry says: rich, flavoursome, a crowd-pleaser. Empanadas are handmade on site, buttery pastry around a rich filling — “a flavour bomb, and a must for a Latin American dining experience.” Corn chips are made and fried in-house, and the Beef Cheek Barbacoa is “so tender you can cut it with a spoon.” Save room for the house take on churros.
The bar leans South American, the wine list weighted towards Chile and Argentina, balanced by Australian bottles chosen to work with the smoke and spice of the menu. Cocktails come from an executive bartender with experience from around the world, with Pisco in a starring role — try the Pisco Pop or the signature Santa Lucia. Real thought has gone into the mocktails too, “because we want everyone to feel part of the celebration, whether they’re drinking alcohol or not.”
The response has surprised even them. “What means the most is seeing people come back and then bring their friends and family with them,” Melissa says. As proud Novocastrians, the couple are clear about why the city works. “Newcastle has this incredible combination of city energy and small-town warmth. It’s coastal, connected to the regions around it and, above all, it has real heart.”
There’s always something new in the pipeline — it wouldn’t be these two if there wasn’t — though nothing they’ll name yet. The measure of the place is simpler than any of it. “If guests leave St Lucia feeling like they’ve escaped somewhere for a few hours and can’t wait to come back, then we’ve done what we set out to do.”
Location
St Lucia is located at 1/11 Honeysuckle Drive, Newcastle – alongside sister venues The Kingfish and Blanca.
What makes St Lucia special?
The room does the welcoming before anyone does. An unexpected mix of materials — intricate hand-laid tiling, ceiling sails, handmade furniture — built around a partially open kitchen, and the theatre of a Latin American feast coming off the flame in front of you.
Must try?
The Fuego Set Menu — the fullest expression of the kitchen, and the way the menu was designed to be eaten. Failing that, the Asado Lamb Skewers.