Brothers Thriving in Phnom Penh’s Lively Culinary Scene

“As Phnom Penh’s traffic roared nearby on a recent late afternoon, [New Zealanders] George and William Norbert-Munns were busy decorating. Amid piles of rubble and cement bags, the brothers mapped their vision for the dark, compact space – solid timber banquette seating, chocolate-hued walls, large windows – that would transform it into a sleek gastro pub,” New York Times correspondent Naomi Lindt reports from the Cambodian capital.

“When that pub, Meat & Drink, starts serving sandwiches and pints on 20 February, it will be the fourth foray of George, 30, and William, 35, into the culinary scene of the [city].

“In October 2012 the two opened their speakeasy-inspired Bar.sito. ‘Sito’ is now one of the city’s liveliest and most beautifully designed cocktail bars. Six months later they opened Public House, an upmarket English fish ’n’ chips-style pub with sea-green clapboard walls. Seibur, a 14-seat ‘aperitivo room,’ opened last August.

“Starting so many ventures so quickly would seem impossible – or just plain naïve – in most cities. But Phnom Penh is having a development boom.

“‘There were so many holes in the market for something a little different, a little exotic,’ said George Norbert-Munns, a former product designer.”

Original article by Naomi Lindt, The New York Times, February 6, 2014.

Photo by Quinn Ryan Mattingly.