Best places to eat and drink around Melbourne and Victoria
A beautiful beer garden that’s one of the country’s best? Check. Super cool New York-style pizza? Tick. Dan Stock serves up your top spots to eat and drink this weekend.
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Whether it’s genre-busting New York-style pizzas in cool Carlton, a quick drink and snack in between comedy shows or enjoying one of the last beer garden beers before the weather truly turns, here are Dan Stock’s top picks of where to eat and drink this weekend.
DAN STOCK REVIEWS: A SOULLESS DINING EXPERIENCE IN MELBOURNE CBD
BEST COMEDY FEST FOOD AND DRINK
FOR PIZZA WITH THE LOT
Prahran’s rocking fun diner Ramblr may be no more (RIP), but chef Nick Stanton’s terrific Sichuan-tingling Bolognese that topped noodles there lives on in pizza form at the team’s equally rollicking new pizza joint, Leonardo’s Pizza Palace.
It’s just one of the genre-mashing delights on offer at this retro-cool Carlton restaurant that’s been positively pumping since opening a few months ago. Get in early, for the waiting list on a Saturday night at this no-bookings restaurant runs four-pages deep and while it’s searingly hot right now with all northside’s cool kids, the package has been put together with heart and terrific floor staff help keep the place running smoothly with style.
It’s a simple offering of pizza and pasta that looks to Wise Guy Noo Yawk rather than Italy’s deep south for inspiration, and does carb loading with rarely seen class.
You won’t want to miss the selection of crostini to begin. The line-up includes a fried sardine, splayed over whipped bottarga (cured fish roe) and topped with crunchy-sharp pickles, a squiggle of punchy njuda (a spicy, spreadable sausage) with jalapeños, rich roasted peppers with toasted hazelnuts and confit tomato sitting on a cloud of goat’s curd.
Gosh, they’re good.
Nor will you want to skip the stracciatella – the Italian cheese that’s the love child of mozzarella and fresh cream – which Stanton serves with a scoop of confit tomato bright with fresh thyme along with a squirt of vibrant herb oil with slices of oven-warm white bread. Swoon.
But pizza is the main game and they are big in size and calorie count – especially when you dunk the crusts in the jug of creamy-sharp ranch sauce served to the side. You’ll never look at a crust the same way again.
Every other table has ordered the pepperoni, so you’ll want to, too. It’s a monster topped with a plethora of tiny spicy slices of American salami, the light, charry blistered base providing ballast for the cheesy excess atop.
Licensed until 1am – and cooking pizzas until then – this is a hospo hot spot where knock offs might include a jug of the very smashable house “bath tub” lager, a grapefruit-tinged take on negroni ($20) or a field blend white from the tight list where bottles hover around $60.
You won’t have room, but if you do, the tiramisu that comes in cheesecake form is a revelation.
Leonardo’s Pizza Palace, 29 Grattan St, Carlton North. leonardospizzapalace.com.au
FOR PRE- OR POST COMEDY SHOW
It was comedians’ longtime favourite late-night hangout during the Comedy Festival in years past, so when Rhys Nicholson and partner Kyran Wheatley saw Lt Collins St bar Hairy Little Sista was shuttered they hatched a plan. For comedians and those going to their shows need somewhere to drink, after all.
And so BOB – or Balding Older Brother – was born.
The duo are joined by ex-Triple J breakfast presenter Alex Dyson (who’s recording a comedy festival podcast on site every afternoon) in the festival pop-up bar, while Kyran’s roped his brother Breac – the assistant winemaker at Leuwinn Estate in Margaret River – into supplying the wines. Collingwood’s Stomping Ground is on beer duty and snacks come courtesy of Southbank’s East by West and include banh mi, rice paper rolls and the like – as well as South Melbourne dimmies. “Just super delicious easy eating stuff to grab in between shows,” Rhys says, who is performing his show Nice People, Nice Things, Nice Situations opposite at the Victoria Hotel.
“It’s so close can be at the bar, pop across to do my show, and be back before I know it.”
BOB is at 240 Lt Collins St and will open every day of the comedy festival from noon.
FOR A BEER IN THE COUNTRY
While the turning of the clocks this weekend heralds the start of doona-and-binge-watch season, get one last alfresco meal in before winter truly descends and make it count by taking it in one of the country’s best beer gardens.
Bendigo’s Gold Mines hotel quietly reopened its historic doors on New Year’s Eve. Co-owner Tim Foster (Source Dining, Kyneton) is on the pans in the beautifully revamped pub and Adam Cash (ex Union Dining) is managing the venue that consists of a formal dining room, bar area, private lounge and large enclosed courtyard but it’s the expansive grounds that truly put the garden into beer garden that makes the Gold Mines so richly rewarding and a central Victorian must.
There’s Bendigo draught on tap, a fridge filled with Macedon riesling and chardonnay and a cellar of Macedon pinot and Heathcote shiraz keeps the sips suitably local, though
Whether in the handsome dining room our out in the covered courtyard, Foster’s menu teams pub classics created with namechecked local produce – great fish and chips, an excellent burger - with restaurant-style plates – rare roasted kangaroo with spiced beetroot and warrigal greens; confit duck with lentils and cumquat puree – to crowd-pleasing effect.
49 Marong Rd, Golden Square. goldmineshotel.com
FOR ARTY FRIDAY NIGHT DRINKS
If you are yet to catch the NGV’s latest blockbuster - the mind-bendingly beautiful Escher X Nendo Between Two Worlds - you have just this weekend to make amends before it closes on Sunday. Why not make a Friday night of it and start the art with a cheeky G + T or cocktail in the Bombay Sapphire Gin Garden. The open-air bar is the spot to make the most of the last of the daylight saving light, with tasty drinks, tunes and after-hours access to the exhibition.
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