Simon Wilkinson reviews The Uraidla Hotel

BRINGING the Uraidla Hotel back from the brink is just the start of plans to revitalise a small Hills community.

Interior of the Uraidla Hotel

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AM I a Fertiliser or a Producer? Good question. Particularly when the wrong answer could result in a major faux pas. The signs on the loo doors at the Uraidla Hotel will have most patrons scratching their heads the first time round, I reckon. It’s a relief, on more than one level, to pick “Fertilisers” and find a row of urinals that are fashioned from old beer kegs.

Dunny dilemmas are just one of many conversation starters to be found in this historic pub that has been rescued from a near-death experience and is now a thriving hub for its little Hills community.

Take a lap around the front bar and you will see, in no particular order, a full-sized windmill, antique floor lamps suspended high up in the ceiling, a ferocious black spider, faded photos, road signs and much, much more. It’s Alice in the Outback, if you like, incorporating country homestead, art deco, clubby comfort and even warehouse-style stripped walls, in an establishment that includes bar, dining and function space.

This is only the start of the grand vision of proprietor (and interior designer) Julie Peter and her husband Ed. In the next week or so a bakery and cafe will open in the converted squash court next door, with a brewery not too far behind. And from where we sit in a sunny alcove to the western side of the hotel, a picture window looks out to a building site that will become, Julie says, a series of vegie patches that hark back to the town’s proud market garden tradition.

Having your pub resurrected by someone so keen to connect with the community must be a huge fillip and the locals seem keen to return the love. On Friday night the place is buzzing. Both dining rooms are full and the couches and stools around the bar have a mix of families with toddlers, workers enjoying knock-off drinks and old friends talking rubbish. No one dresses up.

Chef Anna Kittel has put together a menu to keep them all happy, with pub favourites sitting beside more ambitious fare under headings such as Top Dressing, Main Crop and From the Pasture. There’s plenty of veg, as you’d expect with growers such as Cobbledicks over the back fence, and a sense that many of the ingredients come from nearby, even if the producers aren’t named.

Fish and chips at Uraidla Hotel

Fritters of zucchini and Kangaroo Island haloumi are a good place to start, the footy-shaped snacks a little rough around the edges so the bumps can crisp up and the two main ingredients coming through loud and clear.

Segments of “Jospered confit octopus” tentacle, however, have a super-salty coating and their leaden texture makes me wish they had stuck with a simple turn on the grill. The rest of the salad, including radicchio, white beans, dried olives and punchy strips of caramelised orange rind is fine.

A ridiculously generous plate of battered yellowfin whiting would feed a fishing fleet. Despite nailing the combo of delicately flavoured white fillet in a brittle, crunchy casing, the serve defeats even our usually insatiable teen.

The bulging dome of puffed pastry that tops a seafood pot pie brings a few oohs and aahs but those flaky layers don’t taste as if they have been made with butter. The filling contains both moist chunks of local fish (not specified) and blue swimmer crab meat that gives some depth and body to a decadent white sauce flecked with herbs. An endive and preserved lemon salad is a good foil.

Citrus also features with the saltbush lamb rump, well-cooked but under-seasoned pieces of meat resting on a thick puree of carrot and cumin, all buried under an avalanche of buckwheat that makes a terrific, chewy alternative to the usual couscous. Slices of roasted orange and plenty of greenery freshen it all up.

To finish, traditionalists will head for the crumble-topped pie of pink lady apple or the trifle of rhubarb and lemon curd which make for a spectacular striped creation in a tall glass. The Instagram crowd, however, will find the best snaps in a Nutella doughnut sundae.

Outside, the fun continues with a sign declaring this is “The Worst Pub in Uraidla”. And the best, of course. Along with the opening of pizzeria/bar Lost in a Forest right across the road, this small town now has two reasons to visit or, if you’re lucky enough to be a local, two reasons to stay.

SIMON SAYS

URAIDLA HOTEL

1198 Greenhill Rd, Uraidla
8390 0500; uraidlahotel.com.au

OWNER Julie and Ed Peter
CHEF Anna Kittel
FOOD Contemporary/pub
SNACKS $4-$8
ENTREES $15-$18
MAINS $22-$30
DESSERT $12
DRINKS Local labels, quite rightly, hold pride of place on a list that also extends interstate and overseas where appropriate.
BYO $20

Open for LUNCH and DINNER Daily

SCORE: 6.5/10