Breweries have a unique role to play in Australia’s dining landscape. On paper, we don’t typically look to them for their dining credentials, but at their core breweries are central to local communities, social hubs capable of catering to most tastes in an approachable, comfortable setting.
The quintessential brewery isn’t often revered for boundary pushing cuisine or for playing on trends that draw in a food conscious crowd. But a new cohort of breweries is beginning to cook well outside the expectations of the average Aussie brewpub, among them the recently opened Long Point Brewing Co.
Opening its doors in mid-2026, the brewery resides in the coastal town of Kennedy Bay, 50 minutes south of Perth. The expansive venue is the product of a big budget and lofty ambitions, and not just for its beer, but for its food and dining offering too.
The imposing two storey venue is polished and considered, its multiple dining spaces looking out over Kennedy Bay. The layout is open and breezy, suited to long lunches and fuss-free dining.
That fuss-free dining comes in the form of a menu centred on Neapolitan style wood-fired pizza and shareable plates that emphasise provenance and punchy flavour, all dispatched from a kitchen that, in the world of pub and brewery dining, tends to overdeliver.
Where Long Point Brewing Co has its biggest edge is in the fact that its kitchen is skippered by two chefs rather than one. Oriza Schutz and Marcos Gentile lead culinary decision making, with Gentile focused on pizza and Schutz taking the reins across share plates, grill and sides.
There is plenty of experience between the two. Gentile arrived at Long Point Brewing Co after five years as sous chef at WA institution Si Paradiso, under the guidance of Ben Ing (formerly Noma, Alberta’s). His resume also includes international pizza making duties, all culminating in his leadership role here.
“As pizza head chef, my main role is to bring consistency to the pizzas, lead and train the pizza team, and make sure we’re continually improving. Our team is quite young and are still learning the craft,” Gentile explains.
“I’ve been fortunate to work in some really renowned places. Before coming to Australia, I worked at Braz Pizzaria in São Paulo, which has been considered the world’s best pizzeria a couple of times; it’s currently ranked fourth by 50 Top Pizza.”
“With a new venue, you’re building a lot of things from the ground up: the team, systems, menu and culture. There’s a lot of room to experiment and improve, which I really enjoy.”
For Schutz, the journey to Long Point Brewing Co has looked a little different, though her resume includes some serious names in WA hospitality, among them Little Creatures, Bread in Common and the CBD fine diner Balthazar. Her menu ideas and cooking style are informed by those experiences, along with growing up in Indonesia, where eating with family instilled a love for cooking early on.
“I grew up watching my grandparents and my mum cook for everyone in the house. I think that’s really where my love for food started. Food was never just about eating for us, it was about family, sharing and bringing everyone together,” says Schutz. “My role at Long Point Brewing Co is really about bringing my culture, creativity and ideas into the kitchen, and I want to create food that feels exciting and approachable.”
For Gentile, his cooking too is as much about his upbringing and heritage as it is about time spent in commercial kitchens.
“I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil. My grandpa was an Italian immigrant in Brazil, so I recall weekends at my grandma’s house with family eating lasagna or spaghetti bolognese. I think that love for pizza comes from my Italian heritage,” Gentile says.
The coming together of Schutz and Gentile’s experience results in a menu dotted with style and influence that goes beyond the archetypal brewpub offering. Salsa picante on mortadella and pepper skewers, octopus with nduja butter, hummus with flatbread, and tuna carpaccio with blood orange and green olives are just a few examples of dishes that draw on a broad stockpile of technique and global influence for the current seasonal menu.
For both chefs, produce, and importantly its origin, heavily shapes the food, with local suppliers named and celebrated across the menu where possible. La Delizia cheese, The Mushroom Guys, Vesuvio fresh pasta, Fremantle Octopus and 6 Acre Beef are a few of the names that feature.
The local produce, the global approach to flavour and the chefs’ combined experience add up to a menu that is robust but refined for a busy, newly opened brewpub, with a something for everyone edge and a refreshing take on brewery dining.
“Yes, we’re a brewery, but we want to offer elevated food. Our food takes a lot of inspiration from Mediterranean flavours and is designed to be shared. We try to use as much local, Australian produce as we can, and we want the food to feel generous, fun and approachable,” says Schutz.
Much of the venue’s early success ultimately comes down to the two chefs working behind the pass, and while a co-head chef setup isn’t a novel idea, it’s certainly not the ordinary approach. For Gentile and Schutz, there is a mutual understanding that comes from the lived experience they both bring to the kitchen.
“We have different areas of expertise, and we know we can rely on each other without trying to do each other’s job. I respect Oriza’s pace and leadership with her team, and she respects mine with the pizza team. It’s nice because there is no ego and we’re not trying to prove anything to anyone,” says Gentile.
Schutz agrees, but is also aware that their differences help when it comes to splitting the responsibility of running a kitchen.
“We definitely have different personalities and different approaches, but I think that’s actually what makes it work. We challenge each other, bounce ideas around and keep each other on our toes,” Schutz explains. “We’ve naturally split our responsibilities based on our strengths, but ultimately we’re working towards exactly the same goal: putting out really good food and giving people something new to experience.”
For the two chefs, running the kitchen at Long Point Brewing Co has proven, both to them and to diners, that brewery dining doesn’t have to be limiting or centred on the few safe staples typically delivered from brewery kitchens.
“Pub food can be fun, creative and a little bit unexpected. That’s what we’re trying to do at Long Point Brewing Co, and I think it doesn’t always have to mean chicken schnitzel, although there is absolutely nothing wrong with a good schnitty,” says Schutz. “We’re about good food, fresh local produce and food that people actually want to share.”
Beer might be the reason a brewery exists in the first place, and it’s worth noting Long Point Brewing Co makes very good beer. But what Gentile and Schutz are achieving demonstrates that the dining experience at a brewery doesn’t have to be an afterthought. It can be a clever touchpoint to work beer into dishes where appropriate, and pairing beer with food is a worthy pursuit, but the best way to honour a brewer’s hard work and creativity in the brewhouse is to reciprocate that effort in the kitchen.