Simon Wilkinson reviews The Summertown Aristologist
A new Hills eatery and cellar door captures all that is best about the region in one of the year’s most rewarding meals.
VEGETABLES, are more precisely a dearth of them, can be the bane of travelling salesmen and anyone else eating out on a regular basis ... restaurant reviewers included. Too often protein rules the roost and the veg that do get a look-in are treated appallingly.
Not at The Summertown Aristologist. Here plate after plate is filled with cabbage and chard, freshly dug spuds, tangy wilted sorrel, charred spears of broccoli and more. The meat and fish are there but, for once, they are working in support.
Take the dish written as “Goolwa pipis, mustard, crisp leaves”. The plump little clams might be listed first but they are more like a dressing, clinging to majestic curves of iceberg and blanched cabbage like surfers riding a perfect barrel. The salty juices of the shellfish are emulsified into a fabulous, creamy mustard froth, but it’s the leaves you will remember most.
This celebration of all that is grown above and below the ground is one reason to love the Aristologist. But take a short drive up Greenhill Rd to the little hamlet just past Mount Lofty and you will find plenty more.
It’s easy to be cynical about the mythology surrounding this part of the Hills and the back-to-basics, connected-to-nature, hands-on message it promotes.
But lunch at an eatery that is guided by this ethos in all that it does is nearly enough to have me cultivating a beard and finding my own patch up there.
Co-owner and restaurant manager Aaron Fenwick (ex Orana) certainly looks at home away from the grind of a high-end city diner. He has jumped at the opportunity to work with natural wine pin-up boys Anton van Klopper and Jasper Button on what is in part a cellar door for them and their brethren.
The other part of the puzzle, for the immediate future, is chef Tom Edwards, who moved from the bells-and-whistles kitchen at Magill Estate to this rough and ready set-up, but has clearly embraced the new house rules.
Terms such as “minimal waste”, “made from scratch” and “value for money” are easily thrown around, much tougher to live by.
So lunch, selected for us from the short, constantly updated blackboard menu, begins with a sourdough loaf that is not only baked in-house but made from grain that is milled in the room next door. Shavings of pale, spiced pancetta come from Stella — not the name of a smallgoods company, but the pig.
Thin slices of daikon, the mild-flavoured Asian radish, are draped over meat (and a few other gooier bits) stripped from a roasted kingfish head. The daikon leaves are also blitzed to make a green sauce that adds another level of intrigue to a dish where the pungent, fishy paste and tender crunch of the veg are a revelation.
Broccoli stalks, with some leaves left on, are poached in kombu broth, then charred briefly on a grill. They are served on a pearl barley “risotto” made with the same broth, topped by a crunchy mix of popped millet, quinoa and spelt.
Equally restorative are slices of moist, full flavoured poached chicken (from nearby Forest Range) accompanied by two bundles of wilted leaves — chard dressed in a little butter, and little-seen sorrel providing the lemon tang that is made-to-measure for the bird.
New-season potatoes, freshly dug from their own patch, are tossed with a mix of raw and cooked mushrooms, including shaved porcini. No need to mess with nature there.
To finish, fine slices of quince are stacked layer-upon-layer, then roasted until the colour of the terrine ranges from deep magenta on top, through shades of pink. It’s matched to a wonderfully delicate almond custard and dark, slightly bitter almond caramel in a dessert that is breathtakingly good.
The only bad news, in fact, is that Tom Edwards’ tenure at the Aristologist has only a few weeks to run, before another, as yet unnamed chef has his chance to become embedded in this unique and thoroughly convincing project. Lets hope he likes his greens.
THE SUMMERTOWN ARISTOLOGIST
1097 Greenhill Rd, Summertown, 0477 410 105, thesummertownaristologist.com
OWNERS Anton van Klopper, Jasper Button, Aaron Fenwick
CHEF Tom Edwards
FOOD Contemporary ENTREE/MAIN $12-$22 DESSERT $10 DRINKS The owners wines and many other like-minded naturalists, both local and international, are stored in the cellar below. Like the food, prices are more than reasonable.
The Summertown Aristologist is open for
LUNCH Fri.-Sun
DINNER Fri.-Sun
Score 8.5/10