Bleakhouse Hotel a revamped pub with your personal sports screen
TV dinner takes on new meaning at the Albert Park’s revamped Bleakhouse Hotel, where six cool booths with private screens are part of the bayside pub’s recent $1 million nip-and-tuck.
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The new iteration of The Beach Hotel sees this prime corner pub get its groove back since its heyday in the noughties as a destination bar and party spot, followed the next decade by an ill-fated stint under the Collingwood Football Club.
In June, it was returned to its original 1883 moniker — named after a Charles Dickens novel — by new co-owner Tom Walker, former director of Melbourne Pub Group.
The aim was to restore it to its roots as a watering hole for locals. If only all local boozers were this up-market.
The refurb, thanks to Six Degrees Architecture, has seen the entire interior of the restaurant and bar tastefully reworked, with a new courtyard and beer garden styled by Eleisha Gray, also responsible for the decor at the fresh-faced Esplanade Hotel up the bay.
The next stage will transform the facade and include street seating, with a rooftop beer garden with unhindered water views the eventual jewel of the crown.
Until then though, there’s still plenty to like.
The ground floor features a big central bar flanked by the dining room and the public bar, plus those cool booths, all seating 120 punters. There are screens aplenty playing sport but you can escape them if you wish.
To eat, elevated pub grub is the order of the day, with some international dishes — chicken tagine, prawn curry, coq au vin — mixing things up.
For entree, the barbecue tiger prawns ($16) were simplicity plus, just split down the middle, flesh flashed with heat and served with garlic, parsley, lemon and a good glug of olive oil.
Classic burgers, fish and chips, chicken schnitzels and steaks were spied going to tables, but inspired by the biting wind coming off the bay, we go the comforting roast of the day ($25). The pork belly was well rendered and sliced, with a generous amount of crackling and winter veg — carrot, cabbage, potatoes — in a decent gravy.
The Goan prawn curry ($24) did the job, too — a mild sauce punctuated with tomato and tamarind and amply dotted with juicy prawns, and served with a pappadum, rice and fried curry leaves.
But dish of the day was the confit duck ($27). The leg of a Mornington Peninsula bird with tender flesh and bronzed skin on a bed of mash flecked with spring onions, all topped with parsnip chips with a good gravy.
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Elsewhere, a kid’s menu offers fish and chips, pasta with napoli and a cheeseburger (all $12).
Dessert? The sticky date pudding ($12) is a light and lovely version of the classic. It’s spiced with ginger, cut with lemon and orange zest and deliciously dotted with sultanas and dried apricots, served with salted caramel and ice cream.
At the bar, there’s a 100-strong list of old and new-world wines, beers on tap and a range of cocktails.
Apart from that well-heeled, waterfront locale, what’s impressive here is the value for money, with very keen prices compared with venues further down the bay in St Kilda and Elwood.
Bleakhouse — your summer of love awaits.
BLEAKHOUSE HOTEL
97 Beaconsfield Parade, Albert Park
Ph: 9690 4642
Open: Daily, noon to late
Go-to dish: Roast of the day
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