Next-gen producers making Bright a feast for food and wine lovers
From artisan gin to cool cafes and wild wines, next-gen producers have turned Bright in Victoria’s high country from retirement village into a booming food town.
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Three-and-a-half hours northeast of Melbourne at the foot of our version of the alps, with the Ovens River flowing through it and with rolling valleys to the south, Bright has long been one of Victoria’s favourite spots to swap city for country.
Especially in April and May, when the entire region is ablaze with the fiery reds and brilliant oranges and dazzling yellows of autumn in all its spectacular glory.
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But it’s not just nature lovers — whether passive season spectators or the mountain bike riders and alpine marathon runners who have turned Bright into a year-round tourist destination — who now flock to this high country town with a permanent population of just 2500.
“The food scene here has exploded in the past five years,” says winemaker Nick Toy from Feathertop, the first winery in the Alpine Valley that now features 22 varieties grown across its 20 hectare site.
Once a sleepy town people passed through or retired to, Bright has transformed into a thriving hub of food and wine, with an influx of next-gen operators bringing their big-city experience to bear in the town they’ve chosen to call home.
Many came for a snow season, decided to stay on for the summer, falling in love with both the region and a special someone and are now raising a young family here. It’s this next generation that are giving new life to the town.
“It was a retirement village, now it’s booming,” Nick says.
“I think it’s because people have to create their own work here. People are prepared to have a go, young people give it a shot.”
Many of these operators cater to the adrenaline junkies who flock for abseiling and paragliding and world-class mountain bike trails, the biggest of which is the Bright Brewery.
In the centre of town, the brewery that began as a tin shed in 2005 has since grown into Bright’s always-bustling social hub where bike riders return for a celebratory pint after conquering the mountains, families go for pizzas on the deck overlooking the Ovens, and beer lovers go for the core range of “mountain crafted” beers than include a crisp alpine lager, malty amber ale and tropical pale ale.
And once you’ve taken a tasting paddle and chosen your favourite brew at the brewery, here are other must-visit operators making their mark and turning this high country retreat a food-lover’s feast.
GIN FLING
For many years, Tani Eat and Drink was Bright’s must-do dining destination and so when it closed there were tears from locals and visitors alike.
But rather than move on Hamish Nugent and Rachel Reed just moved around the corner, turning their attention fully to gin. In a converted mechanics workshop, the couple opened the doors to Reed & Co 16 months ago, where you’ll now often see Hamish in the distillery tinkering with his still, Molly, and his next batch of gin.
The namesake Remedy Gin is a unique blend of local botanicals including eucalyptus, pine and mountain pepper, with green tea and shiso accents reflecting the duo’s love of and time spent in Japan.
Open from Friday through Monday for gin tastings and cocktails, when he’s not distilling Hamish is tending the red gum-fired grill on which a range of snacks and share plates are cooked.
Following a similar local-produce-simply-treated ethos that was employed at Tani to such acclaim, cured meats and marinated olives might precede local trout or aged beef on the grill, with Remedy and other gins, or a splash of local wine, to go with.
Reed & Co Distillery, 15 Wills St, Bright.
COOL COFFEE
Sharing the same space as Reed & Co is Sixpenny Roastery, making the Wills St site a double act of deliciousness — coffee and pastries by day, gins and tonic and food-fired fare at night.
“We are a really, really spoilt regional town, it’s evolved so much,” says owner Luke Dudley who moved to Bright nine years ago.
Seeing a need in the north east for good coffee he started Sixpence 4½ years ago, first roasting and serving from a warehouse in Bright’s industrial area.
Now in the centre of town, the roastery and cafe serves locals, the lycra’d and the laze-over-papers alike, while the original Churchill Avenue site is now the home of Luke’s sourdough bakery, A Pocket Full of Rye.
Open weekdays, the bakery has sourdough loaves and pastries and, now, pizzas on Fridays for lunch — and coffee, of course.
Sixpence Coffee, 15 Wills St, Bright.
A Pocket Full of Rye, 35 Churchill Ave.
WILD WINES
“If you want to try different wines, come here. Word gets around that we’re doing things differently,” says winemaker Jo Marsh who, since 2014, has been championing alternative varietals and the Alpine Valley through her Billy Button label.
Never sipped a saperavi or slurped a schioppettino? Fancy trying a fiano or friulano? Head to the Billy Button cellar door in town to taste them and 22 other varieties of wine, which are offered by the glass and bottle.
“My intention from the get-go was to produce wines that promoted the Alpine region,” Jo says, who moved to the area and worked at Feathertop for a couple of years before setting up Billy Button.
While chardonnay and riesling remain popular, Jo says adventurous drinkers are seeking out the region to experience new wines they’ve never tried. “People love coming in to try varietals they haven’t heard of before.”
With a cabinet full of salumi — emu and kangaroo salami; wagyu bresaola — and local and imported cheeses to go with your glass of arneis or malvasia, the cellar door offers a delicious education in alternative Alpine wines.
Billy Button Wines, 11 Camp St, Bright.
GOOD TIMES
“People say it’s like something they’d find in Melbourne, which is a real compliment, I guess,” says Kurt Adam of Tomahawks, his beer-buns-and-fun times joint.
Opening 2½ years ago as a single-fronted 45-seater, the formula of cool brews and on-trend burgers and easy-pleasing share plates proved so popular they had to extend — first into the store next door, and then over Christmas, increasing the footpath to cater to al fresco feasters.
With quirky ephemera, good tunes, a fridge full of interesting beers and a bar filled with spirits that get shaken and stirred into cool concoctions — and a mighty fine cheeseburger — it’s easy to see why Tomahawks has been such a hit with locals and interlopers alike, day through night.
Tomahawks, 15 Camp St, Bright.
TOP DROPS
With its unbeatable views of Mt Buffalo and the Buckland Valley beyond, there are few better spots to while away an afternoon than on Ringer Reef’s sun-drenched lawns.
A small winery that’s very much a family affair, the vineyard was planted 21 years ago by Bruce and Annie Holm.
And while they are still charged with tending the vines, it’s now son Mark and his wife Julie — both qualified winemakers — who tend to the winemaking and cellar door.
Drop in to try the range of 12 varietals grown on site — many of them Italians — grab a glass of your favourite and enjoy with a tasting platter of local produce and the housemade sourdough.
Ringer Reef, 6835 Great Alpine Rd, Porepunkah.
FINE FEED
Emma Handley (Villa Gusto, Astra Falls Creek) has transformed a gloriously creaky old Masonic lodge just outside Mt Beauty into the north east’s newest dining hot spot.
Templar Lodge sees the acclaimed chef cook a tight carte that travels the world.
There’s salumi and pickled veg or burrata with pesto to start, masterstock pork with marbled tea egg, or green tea noodles with shiitake mushrooms to follow, but many come just for Emma’s handmade pastas — whether gnocchi with Harrietville trout or cavatelli with njuda and cavolo nero.
The well-stocked cellar is an equal drawcard, with local heroes — Fighting Gully Road, Mayford — joined by a few Frenchies for good measure.
Templar Lodge, 181 Kiewa Valley Highway, Tawonga.
SAY CHEESE
Wandiful Produce is a small biodynamic chestnut and hazelnut farm on the outskirts of Wandiligong and while many come in season for the pick-your-own nuts, more recently it’s cheese-lovers who are making their way to the wonderfully rustic shed cafe.
For it’s here you’ll find — and can taste — the Three Peaks range of farmhouse-style French cheeses made by Luke Armstrong.
Just six months old, Three Peaks has four in the range, two goats milk cheeses — a ripe, oozy Cloudlet and the Monolith dusted in ash — and two cows’ milk cheeses, one soft, one hard, with plans to add a raclette style cheese in time for winter.
Luke’s partner Vanesa Lipscombe runs the cafe and makes the most of local produce — literally.
She trades coffee for excess produce with locals and then writes the blackboard menu accordingly.
Leeks and chillies from Dod, lemons and eggs from Gay, Angela’s pumpkins and Ingrid’s figs are all transformed into warming soups and terrific tarts, while Three Peaks cheese turns up in toastie, platter and baked until oozy form.
This is farmgate dining at its unaffected, rustic best.
Wandiful Produce, 795 Morses Creek Rd, Wandiligong.
PUKKA PUNKA TUCKA
Janelle Boynton from Feathertop Winery down the road joined forces with another local family to save the historic Porepunkah Pub.
They stripped it, gave it a sleek industrial-cool makeover, spruced up the accommodation and reopened a couple of years back to the cheers of locals and bike-riding Rail Trailers alike.
With classic meals on the menu — panko-crumbed chicken schnitzel, a couple of steaks and a few burgers to boot — a fridge full of local wines and beer taps that range from the smashable to the sip and savour, this is a smart country pub well worth a pit stop.
The Punka Pub, 13 Nicholson St, Porepunkah .
OTHER TOP SPOTS:
WANDI PUB
Boasting one of the best beer gardens in the state, the Wandi is a top spot for a feed — the smoked duck congee is a knockout — and a cool crafty brew. It’s no secret this is one heck of a country pub, so don’t forget to book. thewandipub.com
MT BUFFALO OLIVES
Colin and Elisa Bertuch have been making award-winning olive oil from their grove at the base of Mt Buffalo for almost two decades. Drop in to taste the range and pick up some olives to eat and oils to drizzle for home. mtbuffaloolives.com.au
BRIGHT BREWERY
Come for a beer, stay for a pizza and don’t forget a six-pack to go: the Bright Brewery is a bustling behemoth for very good reason. The beers are great, the welcome is warm and the food easy pleasing for the whole family. brightbrewery.com.au
FEATHERTOP
A pioneer of alternative varieties in the Alpine Valley, what started as a one-man tin shed operation by Kel Boynton has grown into a multifaceted operation — part cellar door, part retail outlet, part terrace restaurant. Add on-site accommodation and you have a one-stop spot for an impressive, and unique, weekend getaway. feathertop.com.au
DO THIS:
The annual Feast High Country Festival starts on Friday (May 3) and runs until May 19. With more than 40 food events held across the north east, there’s hands-on classes, dinners, village bonfires and more to, yes, feast on. Full program: feasthighcountry.com.au
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