New marina restaurant Martha’s Table at Martha’s Cove makes a splash
Martha’s Table puts the peninsula and million dollar marina moorings on show – but you don’t need to be a squillionaire to enjoy this newcomers’ creative food charm, writes Dan Stock.
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What’s the best way to become a millionaire in the wine business? Start with 10 million. So the joke goes.
Same applies with boats, I’d imagine, for there’s no surer way — save having kids — to see your money drain away than having a 40 footer bobbing in the bay.
There is, however, something undeniably romantic about looking across a marina where the promise of endless horizon escape and sun-kissed champagne glamour is but a mooring away. Dreams, as they say, are free.
Given I’ve given over to this many-zero reverie while contentedly gazing from our table after lunch, the new Martha’s Table is surprisingly, welcomingly accessible.
This is the star attraction of the recently completed Moorings, stage one of Martha’s Cove marina village in Safety Beach.
On the lapping edge of the water with views of those boats bobbing about, it’s at once a casual bistro serving from sparrow’s through dark, a bottle shop, gourmet grocery and deli, and restaurant.
Joel Alderson (Pt Leo, The Windsor) is head chef across the two eateries, where in the bistro B-L-A-T sandwiches and mushroom omelettes for breakfast segue into wood-fried pizzas, charcuterie and cheese platters and plates big and small to share.
Though just a wine-filled waiters’ station separates the two spaces, the restaurant, with its mix of curved, cushion-plumped rattan booths and wooden tables surrounded by supremely comfortable, grey-padded chairs, enjoys the best views of the marina beyond.
Here, Alderson is putting a wood-fried grill to good use across the broadly Mediterranean-inspired menu that’s offered in both a la carte and $85 five-course form. There’s a peninsula-championing ethos that harks to Alderson’s time spent at Pt Leo, and in the restaurant that prime produce shines bright in dishes that are creative, refined yet approachable, and executed with class.
A one bite “chip sandwich” highlights those good ideas writ in delicious — two crisps made from spuds from Hawkes Farm in Boneo bookend a filling of smoked eel and San Marzano tomato, the crunch and salt and bright sunshiny acid creating a powerful opening gambit ($9 for two).
It’s the pick over a cool slice of mild melon — piel de sapo, otherwise known as Santa Claus melon — that comes spread with lard and topped with anchovy for a multi-layered mouthful ($9 for two).
A plate of thickly sliced ox heart tomatoes — ruby red, plump, juicy and in their prime — are served on a pond of sticky, chewy stracciatella, a soft, curd-creamy cheese. So far, so classic. But it’s the addition of a politely funky, salty-rich shellfish XO filled with little chewy mussels that transforms the dish into something altogether unforgettable, finely chopped sorrel atop adding a judicious hint of lemon. It’s wipe every last drop dry good — and though you’ll have to fork out $8 for a few slices of bouncy, OK focaccia to do so, it’s worth it ($21).
The mushroom gateau is also fabulously enjoyable. A wedge of crunchy-baked shredded potato that’s like all the best bits left at the bottom of a chip shop wrap is teamed with a medley of shiitake and oyster mushrooms, drizzled with taleggio cream and finished with hazelnut pesto ($25).
More potatoes — wood roasted in butter, covered in grated pecorino, $14 — make a good gnarly-fluffy accompaniment to an excellent piece of Little Joe-branded beef. Today’s tri tip — a textural cut that’s part rump and round — is worth every extra chew for the flavour it gives up, a thick anchovy mayo and dusting of Tyabb horseradish delivering decadent creamy salt and tangy heat in equal measure ($41).
Local rock flathead is equally artfully handled, four fat fillets served with a chunky prawn and tomato butter ($38), while spaghetti generously twirled around spanner crab in a blitzed almond cream and drizzled with smoked yellow tomato vinaigrette is as inventive as it is comfortingly satisfying ($34).
The booze on offer is as parochial as the produce, with peninsula big hitters — Crittenden, Paringa, Yabby Lake — augmented with benchmark Australian varietals and a few Italians for good measure. Wines by the glass are in the low teens, though there are enough bottles in the three figures to keep those tootling in for lunch on their boat (three hours’ mooring is free) happy. Local breweries Red Hill, St Andrews and Two Bays are on tap for $10 a schooner.
Stocked with all sorts of gourmet goodies for galleys on the go, the grocer is equally aimed at weekenders and downsizers who’ve snapped up the apartments above at not outrageous prices, while the bottle shop is filled with top drops likewise fairly marked up. Top tip — when arriving for a reservation in the restaurant, look for the separate entrance to the right to save being caught up in the bistro’s “wait to be seated” queue.
Tables set with good glassware (hefty cut class for water and fine Riedels for wine) and linen napkins with dishes arriving on a procession of pretty pastel ceramics show a keen eye for detail that’s undermined by somewhat harried service and such slips as serving coffee long before dessert.
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When the panna cotta arrives, however, all is forgiven, for it’s the perfect marriage of goat’s cheese tang and summer’s strawberry sweetness, little pistachio nubs and elderflowers finishing a pretty as a picture plate ($17).
Those for whom dessert equals chocolate will be well pleased with the sticky bonet — a chocolate custard — served with Red Hill cherries and decorated with purple basil.
Great produce treated with creativity and respect across a keenly priced carte, Martha’s Table is yet another peninsula win.
It certainly floats my boat.
MARTHA’S TABLE
5 Waterfront Pl, Safety Beach
Open: lunch and dinner, Friday-Sunday (bistro open daily from 8am)
Go-to dish: Mushroom gateau
Score: 15/ 20