Ben Shewry’s Attica summer camp opens in the Yarra Valley
World-famous Attica heads to the Yarra Valley with friesling (frozen riesling), rotisserie chook and black forest cake for a summer of family feasting fun.
Food
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Ben Shewry never did the burger thing.
While many of his fine-dining contemporaries jumped on the bun bandwagon a few years back with a fast food spin off – see Shannon Bennett’s Benny’s Burgers; Neil Perry’s Burger Project – Shewry stuck to his singular vision of a contemporary Australian restaurant and in the process Attica became arguably Australia’s most famous restaurant on the global stage.
But at 300-odd bucks a head – before drinks – Attica was simply out of reach for many, and for most, a one-off, super-special occasion event.
And then 2020 hit and almost overnight, Melburnians were feasting on Attica lasagne and freshly baked brioche garlic bread and tubs of “Ben and Shewry’s” ice cream and a new generation of diners were able to have their first taste of Attica, albeit at home.
While the pandemic and its myriad, shapeshifting challenges presented Shewry as restaurateur with enough beat-or-be-beaten moments to last a lifetime, the year presented Shewry as chef a chance to return to and enjoy a more humble style of cooking.
The outshot of which is Attica summer camp, a four-month pop-up in the upper Yarra Valley where Shewry’s cooking smarts shine through rotisserie meats and cooked-over-coals family style feasting.
As is the way of the Yarra Valley, one minute you’re driving through leafy suburbia, the next, you’re surrounded by vineyards down unpaved roads and here, on the Seville side, it’s the rugged untrammelled beauty of the Warburton Ranges that gives the area a more relaxed, unmistakably Australian outlook, and the large airy indoor and outdoor dining rooms makes the most of this not-to-be-missed vista.
There’s a stonking great smoker and large coal-fired rotisserie that’s the workhorse for the mix-and-match menu that starts with small plates of supremely tasty stuff to eat with bread, and ends with a dessert trolley wheeled to the table and in between offers many a protein to pair with some very good veg.
But first, the chilled soup is a perfect opener. There’s a red tomato-based salsa soup, and a green one that blitzes a patch of summer veg into silken submission and to which minty, herby peas and some crème fraiche is added. It’s the best way to five-a-day and keep those resolutions intact ($13).
Lovely airy focaccia with a lightly cultured butter ($8) is the vehicle for getting deeply seductive marinated tomatoes and fat fillets of Spanish anchovies ($13), or supple, subtly smoked and spiced slices of pastrami dotted with house-made hot sauce ($12), or the artful elegance of cooked-over-coal abalone ($21) from plate to happy belly.
A hefty scotch egg won’t win any beauty pageants but what it loses in looks it more than makes up for in personality, a thick coating of spiced pork surrounding a sticky-yolked egg is grilled to a caramelised crust, a syrupy hoisin adding heady sweetness. Terrific ($18).
Game-changingly tender kanagraoo comes flame-licked outside and ruby rare inside ($18), souvlaki-style rotisserie lamb comes with garlicky yoghurt to be ordered by the 100g ($20), as does ham from long-time Attica butcher Gary McBean that’s served with a sweet apricot glaze ($16).
There’s cauliflower coal-roasted golden served on a bright and zippy “green goddess” sauce ($16), whole blackened onions, the sweet flesh tempered with blue cheese bite ($10) and a hasselback potato that’s at once crisp and cloud-fluffy and devilishly good ($13).
There’s chips ($12) and spag bol ($15) and a fun nacho cob loaf ($15) that’ll keep the kids from climbing the walls.
You’ll likely want to order it all. And you should. But leave room for the dessert trolley; the baked cheesecake that was a rightfully famous lockdown hit makes an appearance ($17), as does a deliciously sharp lemon tart ($17) and a fun take on a Tim Tam that’s filled with Four Pillars marmalade ($8).
There’s a slushie machine churning friesling – frozen riesling – the fridges are filled with cans of Attica beer by Wellington’s uber brewers Garage Project and wines from here (Woori Yallock pinot from Mac Forbes) and there (an orange garganega from the Veneto) where there’s better value drinking by the bottle than glass (with lots of booze-free options for drivers).
Sure there will be those who’ll baulk at some of the prices – $42 for half a rotisserie chook did give me cause to pause – but overall it’s a small surcharge to experience Attica smarts in shorts-and-thongs surrounds. Go bush and have a ball.
Attica Summer Camp
45 Davross Ct, Seville
Open: Thursday-Monday from 11am (two-hour sittings)
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