An old Hills church transformed into a wine bar and pizzeria is drawing huge crowds. What’s the secret?
AN old Hills church transformed into a wine bar and pizzeria is drawing huge crowds. So what’s the secret?
TODAY’S review would perhaps be better expressed as a Wordsworth poem. Or perhaps an impressionist painting.
Standard prose and photography feel somewhat inadequate to convey the tableau that unfolds on the front lawns of Lost in a Forest, the Hills pizzeria and wine bar that is much more than the sum of its parts.
On one side, a birthday party has spread across a patchwork of picnic rugs and a few upholstered sofas that might have been borrowed from someone’s nanna. The gathering – mostly young and glowing with health – wear summer hats and flowing skirts. They chat, laugh, mingle, play board games and occasionally nibble and sip.
On the other, friends with little bambinos also sit on the grass, their blankets scattered with colouring books and pencils, as well as the wooden boards on which lunch is delivered. It’s a scene that captures the spirit of the season, of the location and of this generation’s carefree approach to eating out. It also helps to make sense of the crazy popularity of this converted church in Uraidla that, on the face of it, is a decent wine bar serving a limited selection of wood-oven pizzas with a few quirky toppings.
Tables are regularly booked out on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday that Lost in a Forest opens, to the point where it is starting a Thursday night session so the locals can get a look-in.
With the pub across the road brought back from the dead, and the more cerebral Summertown Aristologist up the road, these two neighbouring hamlets are now drawing national attention. All this has happened since early last winter when the three amigos behind LIAF started the ball rolling.
Charlie Lawrence is a designer, who lived in the old church that has been transformed from home to restaurant. His bedrooms and living spaces are now filled by a random collection of tables and chairs, a bar where bottles hang overhead and, at the rear, where the altar would have been, the dome of a wood oven.
Drinks are the domain of Taras Ochota, the rock star winemaker who, as well as contributing his Ochota Barrels range, has curated a list that reflects his own love of food-friendly and natural labels, the variety gamay (beaujolais) and longnecks of Melbourne Bitter (among the Champagnes).
And chef Nick Filsell has gone from running busy city kitchens such as Red Ochre and Jamie’s Italian to turning out pizzas at breakneck speed.
Over time he has mastered the rhythm of his wood oven. During service, the superheated, smooth stone floor scorches and crisps his thin bases, while the edges bubble up and just start to char before they are removed. As the temperature drops slowly after the weekend, trays of meat and veg are braised and roasted to make the next batch of toppings.
Our lunch begins with a small bowl of warm, plump kalamatas, and an excellent (Applewood) gin and tonic, before the pizzas roll out. They are good, not great, I reckon. The crust doesn’t have the pliable chew of my favourites and a few of the combinations aren’t entirely convincing.
The biggest seller by far, Nick reckons, is the “Banh Mi”, a mashup of two street-food traditions that doesn’t measure up to either of the originals. Cider-braised pork and crumbled crackling are spread over a “bianco” (no tomato) base with mozzarella. The pizza is cooked and then finished with pickled carrot and daikon, coriander and a Sriracha-spiked mayo, all of which would be mighty fine in a crusty roll. Clearly, I’m in the minority.
The “Buzzbomb” is another unlikely flavour match-up, with finely sliced chilli and fennel salami drizzled with a house-made chilli-infused honey. The slightly sticky sweetness of the red syrup plays nicely against the salty sizzled fattiness of the sausage but one or two slices is ample.
My pick, however, is the mushroom version, with three different types of fungi, the creamy tang of Shropshire Blue cheese, sage and a sprinkle of truffle salt. Eat it alongside Taras’s svelte Hills gamay and let the forest fairies lead you on a merry dance.
The Market Garden, another vego option, is spread with pesto and slippery pieces of roasted eggplant, capsicum and fennel, and a final flourish of goat curd.
Strawberries and cream dessert pizza? You have to be kidding, after what we’ve eaten already. Anyway, licking on a Locopop seems more in keeping with the idyllic scene of which we are now a part.
LOST IN A FOREST
1203 Greenhill Rd, Uraidla, 8390 3444, lostinaforest.com.au
OWNERS Taras Ochota, Charlie Lawrence, Nick Filsell
CHEF Nick Filsell
FOOD Pizzas $18-$26 DESSERT $5-$18
DRINKS Champagne, chablis, gamay and Melbourne Bitter... surely something for everyone there. BYO $20
Lost in a Forest is open for:
LUNCH Fri-Sun
DINNER Thu-Sun
SCORE 7/10