Best places to eat and drink in Melbourne and Victoria this weekend
Take two of the city’s finest wine minds, add a kitchen helmed by one expert chef, stir in a handsomely renovated Victorian building and add a pinch of neighbourly bonhomie and what do you have? Melbourne’s best wine bar.
Eating Out
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From yakitori a new Richmond Japanese to a Sunday lunch featuring the best olive oil in the state. Or afternoon wines at a Carlton hot spot.
Here are Dan Stock’s top picks for where to eat and drink this weekend
FOR ALL THE GOOD OIL
The Grampians’ Mt Zero is the go-to olive oil for some of our best chefs — something Paul Wilson knows all too well.
The long-time champion of local produce and producers was the fledgling producer’s first customer 15 years ago when he headed up the kitchen at hot spot The Bot and now, to celebrate the new season’s oils, he’s cooking up a winter’s feast featuring all the good stuff.
At the Fitzroy Town Hall Hotel this Sunday for lunch and dinner, Mt Zero olive oils will be showcased from the cocktail on arrival — a lime-pressed olive oil-iced Moscow mule — through to the olive oil mash with beef cheek, the Grampians’ best will be used across four carefully matched dishes.
For $75 a head, which includes a bottle of freshly pressed oil, you better get in oily not to miss out!
At the Fitzroy Town Hall Hotel, Sunday, either 1pm or 7pm. Bookings: mountzeroolives.com
FOR A FINE WINE TIME
Take two of the city’s finest wine minds, add a kitchen helmed by one long-time Andrew McConnell alum, stir in a handsomely renovated Victorian building and add a pinch of neighbourly bonhomie and what do you have? Carlton Wine Room.
This fetching corner site has been pouring wine for Carlton for more than a decade, but its latest incarnation with a trio of hospo lifers at the helm — Andrew Joy (ex Marion) and Travis Howe (ex Coda/Tonka) out front; John-Paul Twomey (Cutler & Co founding head chef) on the pans — is its best yet.
That 100-strong list is a worldly labour of love filled with lesser known grower/producers and while there’s a fair bit of skin contact funkiness for the believers, there’s ample approachable pours in gorgeous glassware for those who just want to drink, not think.
Likewise the menu that’s filled with food you want when you just want to eat, where big flavours and clever combinations abound.
Fat duck and pork croquette fingers are all sorts of crumbed, crunchy rich fatty goodness, while stracciatella served with crunchy potato focaccia is reason alone to return.
A sublime plate of chunky kingfish crudo with pickled wombok and fresh horseradish reaffirms this regal fish for all the right reasons, and for cockle-warming comfort of the highest order look no further than the roast chook.
At this little wine bar, it’s hard not to feel that life is good.
Carlton Wine Room, 172 Faraday St, Carlton. carltonwineroom.com.au
FOR THE BEST PARIS BREST
It’s Bastille Day this weekend so why not celebrate as the French do, with a pastry!
Laurent Bakery will serve its eclair-shaped version of the classic French dessert Paris Brest all weekend.
This light yet decadent treat made up of choux pastry piped with hazelnut mousse and topped, in celebration, with white choc dusted with the French flag, it’s a few bites of delicious liberte, egalite, fraternite.
There will also be masterclasses and tours of the bakery to complete the French Festival weekend.
Various locations. Laurent.com.au
FOR SAKE AND STICKS
Joining one of Melbourne’s busiest eat streets, modern Japanese Eazy Peazy opened this week on Richmond’s Swan Street.
The founders of local Toji Sake — Shar and Yuta Kobayashi — have teamed up with Dan Chan who is putting his experience in such restaurants as Hong Kong’s Yard Bird and Supernormal here to work across a menu specialising in yakitori.
Along with a good range of fish, tofu and meats cooked on skewers over the hibachi, the menu also features duck gyoza and cheesy beef croquettes, with Sher wagyu and Japanese fried rice with crisp chicken skin bigger plates to follow.
A nice line in sake-based cocktails and Japanese beers is sure to keep the 100-seat restaurant, with separate bar area, in good spirits.
Eazy Peazy is at 108 Swan St, Richmond. eazypeazymelb.com
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