Where to eat and drink around Melbourne and Victoria this weekend
Whether it’s beers by the beach at a reborn icon, steak in a pub that’s not really a pub, or brilliant pasta and pizza for a great family feed, here are the best places to eat and drink this weekend.
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Whether it’s beers by the beach at a reborn icon, steak in a pub that’s not really one in Ballarat, or brilliant pasta and pizza for a great family feed, here are the best places to eat and drink this weekend.
And don’t forget to vote for your favourite restaurant in the delicious.100 people’s choice. Head to heraldsun.com.au/delicious100 to have your say and the chance to win $300 to spend at your favourite diner.
MELBOURNE’S BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANTS
FOR BEERS BY THE BEACH
The legend returns
The Espy is back. And how. The iconic St Kilda pub will open its doors on Friday after three years and many, many zeros spent on giving this grandest of dames a whole new lease on life. St Kilda’s 140-year icon has been born anew thanks to the Sand Hill Road Group, and a new generation is about to discover the joys of long days and lost nights at one of Melbourne’s most important pubs.
The famous Gershwin Room will be again the home of world-class gigs, while a smaller basement stage takes care of more specialist tastes. A huge open-air terrace (with retractable roof), public bar (where thongs and singlets straight off the beach are welcomed) and expansive main bar take care of the crowds, while a top floor cocktail lounge — named the Ghost of Alfred Felton — takes good care with refined cocktails and sunset views across the palms to the bay.
There are two restaurants to feed the 2000-strong crowd and chef Ashly Hicks has all bases covered, whether meats from the huge rotisserie, pizzas from the wood-oven, a smart selection of classics — including a cracking parma, of course. Upstairs, Mya Tiger which will open on Dec 3 is a mod Cantonese restaurant that promises Chongqing wings and charsiu bao and XO pipis to go with the all the roasted duck, pork and crisp-skinned chicken
What are you waiting for? The Espy is back for summer.
THE ESPY
11 The Esplanade, St Kilda.
FOR A FAMILY FEED
True hospitality
Named after the town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius from which the Cuciniello clan hail and helmed by patriarch Nino, Ercolano at Patterson Lakes has the easy bonhomie of a neighbourhood favourite with all the idiosyncratic charms of a family run restaurant.
On any given night you’ll find it filled with regulars, and why wouldn’t they come back? The welcome is open-armed warm, the offer of a drink is quick and the wood-beamed, trinket-filled room is comfortingly homely and handsome, the row of salumi hanging in the entry traditionally inviting.
That housemade salumi is excellent — try the bresaola that has a lovely hit of chilli heat — and ‘Nino’s spicy sausages’ are rightfully famous, served in a cast-iron pan bubbling away in a white wine sauce, little focaccia squares on sopping duties.
There are pizzas flying out of the wood oven, while Nino’s wife Natalie is busy hand-making the tagliatelle, spaghetti, gnocchi and rigatoni during the day before helping run the restaurant by night.
We loved the fat, supple ribbed tubes of rigatoni in a glorious lamb ragu that’s deeply rich and slow-roasted tomato sweet. Generous with meat, it’s return time-again for magnificent, while feathery nuggets of gnocchi come hot from the oven in a cast-iron pan with good bolognese providing soupy sauce, melted fior di latte providing a melted cheese crust.
There are main courses for the non-pasta eaters, the off-menu specials filled with carnivore pleasures. Vegans, block your ears, for the meat platter here — helpfully annotated with “share option” — is a veritable Man v Food feast, consisting a whole spatchcock, 200g of porterhouse, two of Nino’s spicy sausages, two cutlets, a bowl of fries and a red-and-white slaw to the side. I reckon it’s $100 well spent for a family feast.
The short wine list sticks fairly faithfully to Italian imports and varietals, with just a couple of nods to the peninsula, at a market-reading $40-odd price point (with a couple of big Barolos for special birthdays).
Trattoria Italian we’ve seen countless times before but done with an elegance and style that properly elevates the offering, Ercolano is already an evidently loved local, but with ample off-street shopping centre parking, is worth a drive.
ERCOLANO
Shop 15 Harbour Plaza, 21 Thompson Rd, Patterson Lakes
FOR A COOL COCKTAIL
Sophisticated sipping
She stands sentry in a mirror ball-lit, plushly upholstered anteroom, her black tutu and masked visage providing a lifesized trinket-themed nod to the charms to be found just behind her outstretched arms.
On one of Melbourne’s hottest eat streets, Gem the ballerina at Trinket on Flinders Lane promises two-levels of cool cocktails and after-dark delights. Pull up one of the tall emerald velour stools under Art Deco pendant lights and admire the wunderkamer filled with antique clocks and crystal decanters, hefty tankards and silver bookends with a full fox stole and stuffed peahen overseeing proceedings.
Or push past the bookcase door and descend the stairs to the dimly lit cellar bar where smartly attired staff will bring you house-made cordials — blackberry and basil, or lemon and almond — spiked with your heart-starter of choice, and elegant plates a step up from the norm. It’s the quieter pick of the two, the date-night yin to the DJ-soundtracked yang upstairs.
Whether you’re up or down you’ll be served cocktails shaken with class — a lemongrass foam-topped tequila old fashioned; an absinthe spritz-finished sherry cobbler — and interesting fare served long into the night, including a range of flatbreads that come with an array of terrifically tasty toppings.
Elegantly plush with a sense of fun and discovery, Trinket is yet another tasty addition to Flinders Lane.
TRINKET
87 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
FOR A DELICIOUS DAY TRIP
The art of eating well
Don’t let it’s name fool you — the Pub With Two Names isn’t actually a pub. Sure you’ll get a pint of Furphy and a feed, but this new lease on life for Ballarat’s Peter Lalor Hotel has eating as its main focus. And David Bromley’s artworks.
The famed artist took over this historic corner pub and has filled it with his distinctive, artworks, while a couple of Ballarat’s experienced hopso operators — Donatello Pietrantuono and Iain Gunn from Carboni’s Italian Kitchen — have taken charge of the food and drink.
They’ve taken a broad South American brush to the menu that features, as its mainstay, 10 proteins from the parilla — the Argentinian char grill — that range from 280g of eye fillet through monster 1.3kg tomahawk.
A great rack of local lamb expertly cooked l is one reason to visit, but you can’t go wrong with anything from the grill which all come served with shared sides of fab rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes and garden salad.
You’ll find the expected hits — burgers, bangers, a half roasted chook — are augmented with more exotic fare that includes a Brazilian “pirao” style pumpkin soup that’s sweet and heady with ginger warmth, fat “ravioli” dumplings generously filled with prawn meat floating atop. It gets a big tick, while sweet teeth will love the complex dessert plates.
A big wine list, good range of beers on tap and good service add up to a winning package.
THE PUB WITH TWO NAMES
Cnr Mair and Doveton St, Ballarat
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