Exciting news! Harvest Newrybar is thrilled to welcome Marcello Polifrone as our new head chef, bringing his incredible talent and passion for local produce to the Northern Rivers.

Marcello’s Italian heritage is seen in the new Harvest menu, but it is the local produce and lifestyle that has the biggest impact on his dishes.

“I’m so excited to be working so closely with what feels like the never ending ecosystem of producers and suppliers in the Northern Rivers region.”

“Already I am blown away by the access here, but what really stands out is the sense of responsibility and respect for community. Every single day I’m sent a menu of fresh wild caught seafood to choose from by Northern Rivers Seafood, with gems like 6ft long wild caught kingfish. Being able to call our lettuce grower who is only 4km away and have lettuce delivered within 30 minutes is a far cry from my experiences in Sydney.” 

Last year Harvest celebrated 15 years as a key part of the Newrybar, Byron Bay and larger Northern Rivers region. Over that time, Harvest has evolved, growing in offering from a humble cafe to a thriving and award-winning restaurant, abundant deli with a focus on local artisanal produce, freshly baked croissants daily, and local coffee, and surrounding gardens which play host to everything from the monthly Fun Friday gatherings (on hold until September’s weather arrives), to fundraisers and spontaneous picnics for locals and tourists stopping by. A constant in Harvest’s history has been championing the farm-to-table philosophy and local producer, and this is something Marcello plans to add to. 

Like much of the Northern Rivers, the Harvest menu works closely with the local seasons adapting as it needs to to sustainably support the natural ecosystem. Under Marcello’s guidance, even the Harvest gardens are changing, with Marcello and longtime Harvest gardener Richie La Face working together to ensure the sharing of information with the team on daily herb picking adventures, and availability of seasonal produce to work with the restaurant’s menu. 

Alongside its garden, the Harvest menu also makes use of a meat aging room in the adjacent deli, and of course the 120+ year old woodfire oven that calls the former bakery its home, and is used to cook and develop beautiful flavour across the menus of the restaurant and deli. This oven has been the centre of the community since before Harvest’s time, offering a communal way of cooking and preserving energy and heat for the Newrybar community since the early 1900’s. Harvest takes its responsibility to maintain this connection to community seriously, not only opening its gardens and spaces up for community programming throughout the year, but also celebrating the abundance of local produce. Mushrooms from Pimlico organic farms, Fair Game Wild Venison and cheeses from Debra Allard and Nimbin Valley Cheese all feature on current menus alongside a slew of others. 

On the current menu, Marcello cooks locally caught wild snapper from Yamba with South Ballina pippies, house fermented cucumbers and citrus from nearby Picone’s Orchard, and a sauce from the fish/pippi stock which is made in-house to not only minimise waste (a baseline according to Marcello) but to also maximising what you get from that wastage to benefit the overall taste of the dish. The nimble-ness of the Harvest team means anything in abundance can be used not just through the restaurant, but the precinct’s deli too, or throughout the growing Harvest pantry of preserves.

Join us for lunch or dinner at Harvest with Marcello and his new menu creations, award-winning wine list and cocktails. We would love to see you.

Join us for lunch from Wednesday to Sunday from 12:00pm
and dinner every Thursday to Saturday nights from 5:30pm.

Make a reservation
View our menu 

With Love, The Harvest Team