Greasy Zoes Hurstbridge review: Local produce is the star
THIS dynamic duo in Hurstbridge is making the most of local produce — and it’s worth a trip to the end of the line, writes Simon Plant.
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THE end of the line can be the start of a new adventure.
Greasy Zoes in the heart of Hurstbridge proves it. From the city, it takes 50 minutes by train to reach this little “produce driven” restaurant and you know you’ve arrived because Hurstbridge railway station is the last stop.
Greasy Zoes, just around the corner, is another five minute walk but any doubts you might have about hiking out to Melbourne’s gumtree’d fringe for a set course dinner of six ($65) or eight ($85) courses dissolve the moment you step inside this singular 15-seater.
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First, there’s the warm welcome at the door from Lachlan Gardner, the only bloke on the floor. Then the pitcher of water that lands as soon as you take a pew and the concise drinks list which Gardner proffers in a soft leather cover-all.
There are pumpkins set on timber tables, there’s rockabilly in the air and toasty aromas waft from the open kitchen where Zoe Birch presides. This gifted chef who calls Hurstbridge home has plenty of runs on the board, having worked the stoves at the Healesville Hotel and Ringwood’s The Cellar Door. But Greasy Zoes, which opened last year in a converted grocery store, sees her at full stretch with Gardner, her partner.
Not only does Birch change her menus daily, they are crafted from local produce, only “grown by small farmers” or select growers who meet her vision for “quality over quantity”.
“We like doing things our way,” Birch says. This single mindedness includes not providing a written menu for you to hold. Every meal at Greasy Zoes unfolds, instead, like a blind tasting and that’s fine if it starts with snacks like these: a teeny Brussels sprout tart, a pumpkin puff and purple congo potato crisp.
More surprises follow. Some coins of house-made salumi and a pickled watermelon radish, a single organic oyster with lime and a cup of warming cauliflower soup. That last one came with a Jerusalem artichoke crisp on the side.
Let Gardner be your guide to wine matching. Well informed, he wears his knowledge lightly and gently encourages customers to try drops they might never have explored — from German rieslings and Loire Valley vouvrays to a pinot noir from nearby St Andrews.
Best of all, almost every wine poured at Greasy Zoes comes by the glass at reasonable prices.
When he’s not your somm for the evening, Gardner is busy serving dishes and flipping LPs on the hi-fi.
Birch’s domain is quite down home with its tagine lids, baguette tins and jars of fruit. No mod cons or slick surfaces in sight. But make no mistake, she has her finger on the pulse. Birch has looked at what other progressive cooks are doing and has come up with her own seasonally attuned inventions.
Only at Greasy Zoes are you going to come across oca, a root vegetable similar to a yam. Birch grills this curio over a wood fire and serves it with olive jam and sliced caperberries, adding fluffy oca foam and smoked organic egg yolk in a final flourish. Earthily amazing.
More conventional but no less delicious is New Zealand blue cod that’s been “slightly cured” and grilled. Birch partners this seafood with soft petals of parsnip, burnt butter parsnip custard and smoked mackerel, imparting an almost dashi powder flavour .
Different cutlery comes and goes with each dish. A small paddle has a thick welt of house-churned butter, ready for smearing onto dark crusty bread. A long slender spoon hides a dollop of lime curd under a “charred” marshmallow. And a big bone-handled knife is just what’s required for Birch’s organic pork scotch from Bendigo, which is served pinkish with “roadside” quinces and flame-licked cabbage.
A house-made croissant bulging with citrus marmalade carries us onto sweets and our deceptively bland melange of stewed tamarillos, milk-curd sorbet, burnt-butter cake and raw chocolate is so jammy, crunchy and creamy, you’ll want to finish every skerrick.
This is labour-intensive fare but it never feels tricked up. Which makes me wonder about the name, Greasy Zoes. It suggests fast food, something flip and forgettable, when everything here demands attention and respect.
The good folk of Hurstbridge are lucky to have Birch and Gardner in their midst.
Dan Stock is on leave
Rating: 14.5/20
GREASY ZOES
3/850 Heidelberg-Kinglake Rd, Hurstbridge
9718 0324
Open: Mon, Thu and Fri 5pm-11pm, Sat-Sun 3pm-10pm
Go-to dish: Blue cod, parsnip and smoked mackerel jerky
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