Best places to eat and drink around Melbourne and Victoria on the first weekend of autumn
Whether fab and fun fine dining in Ballarat, one last twirl of a campfire marshmallow at an inner-city champion of paddock-to-plate dining or a day filled with fish fresh from our bay, here are Dan Stock’s top picks for where to eat and drink this weekend.
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Whether fab and fun fine dining in Ballarat, one last twirl of a campfire marshmallow at an inner-city champion of paddock-to-plate dining or a day filled with fish fresh from our bay, here are Dan Stock’s top picks for where to eat and drink this weekend.
FOR BRILLIANT BALLARAT BITES
There’s a new gold rush afoot in Ballarat and those seeking good food and great drinks are striking it rich.
There’s artist David Bromley’s Pub With Two Names, a distillery (Kilderkin), a craft beer mecca (Hop Temple) and the funky Moon & Mountain that adds cool Chin Chin vibes and SE Asian fare to the longstanding Forge pizzeria to which locals and visitors alike flock.
There’s a wine bar (Mitchell Harris), contemporary bistro (Mr Jones), Spanish tapas at Meigas, a basement bar for negronis (The Lost Ones) and excellent coffee at Fika.
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But it was arguably the arrival of Derek Boath — a chef of 20 years’ experience including a stint at New York’s temple of gastronomy, Per Se — who shunned Melbourne to open his tiny degustation-only restaurant Underbar 18 months ago that cemented the changing fortunes of Victoria’s third-largest city.
There’s lots of good things to know about Underbar. That it’s pronounced “oon-de-bar”, and that that means “wonderful, delectable” in Swedish, for one.
That it seats just 16 people, is open just two nights a week and that you’ll be seated along a long communal table (or at the kitchen counter, should you wish a ringside view).
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That the menu changes every week, and that it makes the most of hyper-local produce that might’ve come from chef/owner Derek Hoath’s neighbours.
That service is sharp, and that the wine matches across the multi-course, no-choice menu as clever as the snacks to start and the boozy jellies to end.
But the only thing you really need to know about the restaurant that’s currently ranked number 16 in state in the Victorian delicious.100 is that reservations open at 9am on the first of each month for the following month.
That means 9am Friday. Be quick to get a spot at the table and experience one of the state’s best restaurants.
FOR TOP TUNES AND CRAFTY BREWS
Before Something for Kate bandmates Paul Dempsey and Clint Hyndman hit the stage this weekend, they hit the Mornington Peninsula brewery to create their own beer especially for the occasion.
Named Miracle Cure — after one of the band’s favourite songs — their rye IPA will be released at this weekend’s Beer InCider Experience, which will make its debut at the Melbourne Showgrounds on Saturday.
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Held in Brisbane for the past five years, BeerInCider is “a rocking beer festival” according to founder Marty Keetels, and this year has Something for Kate headlining a line up that includes DMA’s, Alex the Astronaut, Waax and Loser.
An all-independent line-up of more than 30 breweries and cideries at the event includes Collingwood’s Fixation Brewing, Newtown’s Young Henrys, Green Beacon Brewing from Brissy and Gage Roads and Matso’s Broome Brewery which will be heading over from WA for the day.
FOR TRUE PADDOCK TO PLATE
It’s the little Windsor restaurant hidden within a pub that walked the paddock-to-plate talk like few others.
But the Oak Valley farm that supplied so much of the produce for Highline at the Railway Hotel has been sold and so therefore the restaurant will now close.
But there’s still a couple of weeks left to head to the stylish restaurant that’s ranked 44 in the delicious.100 for chef Simon Tarlington’s degustation journey through the Oak Valley produce that includes beef, pork and lamb treated with both modern technique and timeless respect.
And the signature campfire marshmallow to end the meal is a piece of dining theatre at once fun and supremely delicious.
Highline’s last service will be on March 16.
FOR SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD
Gourmet farmer Matthew Evans is swapping his Tassie turf for our surf this weekend when he joins chefs Rosa Mitchell (Rosa’s Canteen), Matt Wilkinson (Pope Joan), Thi Le (Anchovy) and Michael Bacash (Bacash) in celebrating sustainable seafood at the Slow Fish Festival.
The chefs will host cooking demonstrations where they’ll share their favourite ways to prepare less glamorous but delicious — and sustainable — varieties such as sardines, mackerel, bream, squid and silver perch.
With activities for the kids and a heap of seafood to eat — from fish and chips to sea urchin and abalone — it promises to be a fun-filled day at once educative and delicious.
Says Rosa: “We want to help Melburnians learn how to find Victorian wild-caught seafood and support our local fishers in their responsible fishing efforts.”
At Spotswood Kingsville RSL on Sunday from 10am-4pm.
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