Hi, we’re Emily, Isaac and JP.
Ooze & Tang; brought to you by the waitress, the chef, and the bartender.
We’re independent hospitality professionals with a lot of experience putting plates on tables and drinks in glasses. How much experience? Let’s just say the youngest owner of Ooze & Tang already has eleven years of full time restaurant experience. So yep, LOTS of hours between all of us. We love what we do, and we love sharing it with you - our guests.
Emily (restaurant manager/sommelier) & Isaac (the chef) met working together at Yarri in Dunsborough in 2018. In 2021 they owned a rad little lunch bar in Dunsborough Lakes called Side Street Project. Ooze & Tang is an amazing next step.
Bar Manager Jason, aka JP, from Agent 80 came on board in 2022. He’s an absolute wizard at the dark arts of beverage. JP managed Helvetica back when it was one of Perth’s first, finest and coolest small bars, amongst a magnitude of other rad things. Seriously, he’s a gun. Grab a seat at the bar and have a chat.
Scroll down to learn more about our name…
What’s up with the name?
It’s going to be a common question isn’t it? It looks like it could be an old British pub, a modernist fine dining establishment or a metal band. We’re none of those things. And before you ask, it’s not about our personalities. If it were, the venue might be called Delightful & Clever.
It’s Ooze & Tang. It’s a flavour philosophy. We love a dish or a wine pairing with both richness and acidity. A bit of ooze with your tang creates an elevated and balanced flavour experience. Deliciousness.
It stemmed from an off hand comment one day, maybe in 2018 or 2019. Isaac and I hadn’t been dating too long. I don’t remember who said it, and I don’t remember what we were eating. One of us said “this is delicious! It’s got ooze and tang” and the other replied “we should call a restaurant that.” We were joking. The idea of owning a restaurant was ridiculous. We laughed.
In 2020, the age of hard borders, the idea of opening a restaurant started to feel less ridiculous. If you’re not saving to travel, what are you planning for instead? I bought the Ooze and Tang domain and squirreled away the Instagram handle. Just in case.
Our first Business in 2021 didn’t feel like our vision for Ooze & Tang. It was a lunch bar/café, we called it called Side Street Project. We learnt how to run a business ourselves. It was a big step. We wanted a liquor license but it was never going to happen in that location. After a year we moved on from our little shop in Dunsborough Lakes and started looking for a licensed venue. We ended up finding one for lease in Abbey.
For this new location we toyed with other names. Mostly because whenever we say “Ooze and Tang” to someone they say “what?” and never “oh, that sounds lovely.” But nothing else stuck. This name felt the most genuine. It happened organically and it means something to us.
The logo happened organically too. I was doodling on my laptop, “I want it to look something like this.” I showed Isaac. He nodded, “it’s cool.” I then tried to replicate it a thousand times and decided I liked one of the very first ones. It’s full of fresh energy, not at all forced. It felt real.
When JP came on board a couple of months before we opened, the name made sense to all three of us. Bars are home to so much ooze and tang. Cocktails are a great example of “ooze” and “tang” in balance making delicious magic happen.
If you have any unanswered questions about the name, or suggestions as to who is Ooze and who is Tang. They can be directed to Chef Isaac on 0406… No, I’m joking. He’d very much hate that.
Love from Emily xx