Bondi Bar flies WA flag in the US

LOCAL bars and restaurants may fly the flag for Western Australian products with the meals they serve or the drinks they pour, but there's one going all-out promoting WA to American consumers in the beachside city of San Diego.

Iron ore and sandstone on the walls and jarrah on the floor are just some of WA icons featured in the Bondi Australian Beer and Food restaurant, otherwise known as the Bondi Bar in San Diego's historic gas lamp district.

Bondi's chief executive Julian Heppekausen, originally from Perth where he managed The Left Bank, said patrons enjoyed hearing about the bar's Australian connection.

"[Customers] love the stories, they love the fact that the jarrah on the floor came from WA, the iron ore comes from Morawa," Mr Heppekausen told WA Business News.

"They love the fact that it's Donnybrook sandstone and we try telling them where it is, they love hearing it all.

"Western Australia gets promoted more than any state in Australia because of where we are all from."

David Zampatti and Michael Cameron, who both travelled from Perth to the US to help open the bar, are now leaving Bondi.

Mr Zampatti was involved in marketing and Mr Cameron is the outgoing chief operations officer.

"It's one of those things...we knew it was a big job to do this and we are now in operation mode and obviously we've got to be profitable and we knew that we would always have that plan to scale back," Mr Heppekausen said.

"And as we need those people to expand we'll get them back on board."

As well as having plenty of WA products on show, there is also a healthy contingent of sandgropers working at Bondi.

"Six out of 60 [employees] are Western Australians and probably 20 are from Australia," he said.

Mr Heppekausen said one of the WA products the bar champions is Omrah wine by Mount Barker winery Plantagenet Wines.

Bondi has also featured Little Creatures beer, which proved too popular for supply to keep up with demand.

Premium items to feature on the menu include rock lobster, truffles and Margaret River cheeses.

But with all the WA promotion, why choose the name Bondi?

"We get chastised quite a bit about the name and why we chose Bondi and not a beach in WA, and that was literally a recognition thing," he said.

"We'd like everyone to know Leighton and Scarborough but they just don't.

"And what it is, is there is a great remembrance from the 2000 Olympics and they all remember Bondi Beach from doing the volleyball and it's a tough one to go past."