Dan Stock reviews Andrew McConnell’s new restaurant Gimlet in Melbourne’s CBD

Great Gatsby glam oozes from new CBD eatery Gimlet, which boasts clever cocktails and superb snacks, like this colour-bomb of a creation.

It’d be rude to not try Gimlet’s namesake cocktail when you visit, with the knockout gnocco fritto . Picture: Supplied.

GIMLET (ɡɪmlɪt) noun: A cocktail of gin (or sometimes vodka) and lime juice.

Also verb: To embrace a restaurant with voracious abandon, usually only fully experienced after an extended period of societal trauma caused by external factors, such as a global pandemic.

Of course the joint is jumping.

After just a few weeks of freedom it’s a few days before Christmas and the usual end-of-year festive frisson is amped up to 11 as only 111 days of confinement can create, the air crackling with the energy of heady relief, of celebrating a return to some sort of normality after such an abnormal year.

And if anyone can deliver a sense of both business as usual and something completely unique, it’s Andrew McConnell, he who’s defined so much of what it means to eat in Melbourne through Cumulus, Cutler & Co, Supernormal, Marion and more.

Here at Gimlet, in the 1920s-era Cavendish House, all the elements are in place.

There’s a glorious, gorgeously soaring, bright dining room that will, over time, take on the patina of late night laughs and celebratory business lunches and popped questions and office affairs and moments marked with martinis, but for now feels thrillingly shiny and new.

There’s a clubby, Cheers-like conviviality to the bustling space where air kissing predates social distancing and moneyed Melbourne and a whole heap of hospo waves across the room at colleagues, friends, acquaintances.

You’d happily eat your veggies every time if they looked like this.

There’s nattily attired sharp staff who ferry oysters and crudities, roast chicken and coal-cooked rib eye and cocktails, of course, to those happily ensconced in decadently plush leather booths, or seated around linen-clothed tables or at marble-topped rounds in the bar under spectacular “honeycomb” chandeliers.

And there’s a sense of old world glamour and classicism to both room and McConnell’s kitchen helmed by head chef Allan Eccles that feels both comfortingly familiar and excitingly surprising.

That roast chicken, for instance, comes topped with crunchy fried curry leaves and a deeply aromatic vadouvan gravy/sauce that transports the plate from Melbourne to Mumbai.

It’s as perfectly executed as it is wonderfully unique and is outrageously good ($39). Team with a side of cheesy-buttery roasted potatoes ($12) and perhaps a rainbow of wood roasted zucchini served under a garden of herbs ($14) and you have all you need for a marvellous meal.

The swoonworthy John Dory served on spinach in a cream sauce speckled with smoked salmon roe, avruga caviar and tiny pearls of finger lime.

See also: golden-skinned John Dory served on spinach in a cream sauce speckled with smoked salmon roe, avruga caviar and tiny pearls of finger lime. Swoon ($42).

But first, a gimlet.

Created with a cordial of seven citrus including three types of lime, a hint of bergamot and Geraldton wax, this version earns its name on the door, its bright balance and botanical buzz the ultimate opening act ($22). It’s well worth adding a serve of gnocco fritto alongside, for the puffy dough squares fried crisp, topped with whispers of iron-rich bresaola and filled with parmesan custard are one-bite flavour bombs that blew my mind ($12).

Simple pleasures abound, whether a vibrant patch of raw vegetables to dunk in fromage blanc hidden under electrically vibrant lovage oil ($14), crisp calamari curls served on yoghurt that cools a green chilli harissa ($15), or a briny bright seafood salad of sweet meaty prawns, clams and mussels, coastal herbs and a preserved tomato dressing ($27).

Or simply drinking in a wine list that’s as deep with big hitting Euros as it is with exciting new locals, thanks to Leanne Altman, McConnell’s excellent long-time cellar steward.

Another familiar McConnell face, Shane Lazzo, has made the move from Cutler to oversee Melbourne’s most in-demand dining room where lunches roll into dinners that roll into suppers of cheeseburgers and caviar until 1am on Friday and Saturday nights.

Panettone isn’t just for Christmas.

To finish, there’s the cosseting creaminess of the city’s most luxurious gelato ($17), or an inspired take on panettone that teams freshly baked brioche with soused cherries and a thick zabaglione cream, the lot doused with grappa at the table ($18). Winners both.

With its Great Gatsby exuberance, Gimlet is the very definition of a good time and has all the makings of another classic McConnell restaurant. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

Gorgeous. Glorious. There’s a lot to love about Gimlet’s dining room.

GIMLET

33 Russell St, Melbourne

Open: Tues-Sat from noon (Sundays from Feb 7)

gimlet.melbourne