New restaurant openings in Victoria November 2023: Mister Bianco re-opens in Kew
A suite of new venues has opened in a once-sleepy inner-eastern Melbourne suburb — including a new and improved Mister Bianco.
Food
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Joe Vargetto is embracing new beginnings.
After a tumultuous few years, plagued with Covid lockdowns, business drama and personal health woes, the Melbourne chef is excited to relaunch his iconic Kew restaurant at its new home.
Mister Bianco opened at its new Cotham Rd digs on Thursday, metres from its High St base of 13 years.
“Mister Bianco is beginning a new era and I am excited to be taking the brand in the direction I have seen it going for a while,” he said.
“We want it to become a hub for the local community, somewhere people can have fun while enjoying great food and drinks.”
Moving into George Calombaris’s Hellenic Republic space has given Vargetto more room to play – increasing from humble 80-seater to a 300-person, two-level venue.
He also has bar Bianchetto, set to open in a couple of weeks, and 150-person events space La Sala upstairs.
Vargetto has employed an extra 30 staff to cope with demand, a move made easier by installing head chef Jesse McFadden at the helm.
“When it came to hiring staff, we were just really honest with people and we are creating a culture of learning so people can develop their skills and really feel a part of the family,” he said.
“The fact they have such a beautiful venue to work in and a great management team, such as Jesse in the kitchen, is something that was appealing to potential staff.”
Mister Bianco’s opening comes as part of the suburb’s restaurant revolution.
Within a matter of months, the sleepy inner-east patch went from having no new eateries to welcoming Guy Grossi’s Puttanesca at The Clifton Hotel and a rooftop revamp of The Skinny Dog Hotel.
On the food front, Vargetto’s Sicilian menu includes a housemade focaccia and sfincione (Sicilian pizza), sher wagyu steaks and porchetta cooked over the wood-fired grill.
Mister Bianco, 26-28 Cotham Road, Kew
Sacred returns with new-look
Burger bagels, collagen coffee, Oreo brownies.
Sandwich king Dean Fourtzis’s new bagel barn Sacred has something for everyone — and isn’t shy on packing a flavour punch.
Fourtzis reunited with Fourth Chapter alumni and old friend Christian Rocchi last week to relaunch his Hawthorn project on Glenferrie Rd.
The duo has given the Eat Sacred brand a makeover, ditching health bowls in favour of Melbourne’s favourite portable lunches.
“We have 16 bagels, three baguettes and five toasties, as well as sides of potato gems and fries with our secret sauce,” Rocchi said.
The duo first met while slinging coffees and brunch at Prahran’s Fourth Chapter a decade ago.
Rocchi took time away from the cafe scene to work on his side hustle Bondi Protein. After an extended hiatus, he said it was good to be back.
“I’m from an Italian background and food is a big part of my life,” he said.
“I used to love watching the expressions of people (at Fourth Chapter) when their food came to the table. The only way I’d get that feeling was hosting people at my own home. I love cooking and family and putting on a big spread. It’s something I’m passionate about.”
Sacred has partnered with Jimmy Hurlston, of Easey’s burger fame, to create a limited edition ‘cheeseburger bagel’ for the launch.
While the bagel flavours will be set, Rocchi has allowed substitutes to cater for all dietaries.
“I wanted to design a menu that was alternative, to suit everyone,” he said.
Sacred, 769c Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn
A new Dawn rises in Elsternwick
Melbourne cafe owner Allan Hwang has cracked the brunch code.
The seasoned hospo pro knows sangers, good coffee and a twist on breakfast classics will get people through the door.
Now he’s applying his decades-gleaned knowledge from Crown Melbourne, Lucas Group and Julien Moussi’s Only Hospitality Group at his new Elsternwick cafe.
Dawn Eatery opened this August and is whirring Inglewood coffee alongside Korean and Japanese-inspired eats.
Hwang said the food was an ode to business partner and chef Jung Hwan Woo and his wife Bo’s heritage. So far one of the biggest sellers has been the Galbi Sando, a slow-braised Korean beef brisket between fluffy Japanese milk bread Shokupan.
“For the first three to four weeks we had it on the menu, it sold out before 12pm,” he said.
“It’s the best thing we’ve put on the menu. The customers love it.”
The Galbi braised beef also comes in a brunch format, piled on crunchy corn croquettes with two eggs.
Don’t have time for a full-blown meal? Bo, who trained at esteemed French pastry school Le Cordon Bleu, also makes fresh canele and madeleines every morning.
Dawn Eatery, 390 Glen Huntly Rd, Elsternwick, @dawneatery
Arbory Afloat sets sail for summer
Summer has landed at Yarra River bar Arbory Afloat, with the launch of its Tulum-inspired agave bar, taco hut and pool area.
While the main Afloat bar set sail last month, the pool area opens for the first time this week for guests.
An ever-changing roll-call of corn tortilla taco flavours will be served poolside, such as slow cooked pork shoulder and pineapple — or for more adventurous eaters — tender beef with avocado, cactus and crickets.
More than 60-odd agave products, from tequila, mescal, sotol and raicilla, will also be on pour as well as 10-tequilla based cocktails including the classic margarita.
And for those hot days, Boozy Paleta Popsicles will be at the ready.
Afloat Pool Club, 2 Flinders Walk, Melbourne. afloat.melbourne
Tigers star brings fine dining to Mount Macedon
Dylan Grimes didn’t initially love ‘UUMM’ as the name of his new restaurant at Mount Macedon Winery.
“My first reaction was ‘that’s jarring’ and it’s not even a real word,” he said.
“But now, I like the juxtaposition and how it’s a completely different offering to what we’ve had at the winery.” (NB: If you reverse it, like a Missy Eliott song, it’s MMW).
After buying the winery seven years ago, the triple-premiership Tiger and his wife Elisha last month expanded their repertoire to include a fine dining restaurant.
The 90-seater, modern Australian number runs alongside their existing casual eatery and cellar door slinging pizzas and wood-fired eats.
Chef Brent Slade (former Whirrakee Restaurant, Mr Beebe’s) works across both kitchens.
“When you go to some fancy restaurants you get small portions and don’t leave completely fulfilled,” Dylan said.
“Some of the best restaurants balance high quality and portion sizes well — so you won’t leave hungry or dissatisfied here.”
Otways free range pork belly and fermented fennel, oven-braised chicken with lentils and ricotta and leek tortellini grace the current menu.
UUMM celebrates all things local by using Mount Macedon grown-produce, pouring East Bendigo Brewing draught and sessions IPA and its estate-grown pinot noir and chardonnay, made off site by Shadowfax chief winemaker Alister Timms.
Dylan says he’s seen a shift in winery visitors in recent years, and hopes the trend continues.
“In recent years it’s flipped from 70 per cent tourists and 30 per cent locals,” he said.
“Mount Macedon has become a popular tourist location.”
UUMM, 433 Bawden Rd, Woodend, Open Thurs-Sun from 11.30am to 4.30pm, Fri-Sat from 5.30pm mountmacedonwinery.com.au
Ballarat’s The Goods Shed welcomes new restaurants
A second wave of restaurants has opened at Ballarat’s new food hub The Goods Shed.
All-day eatery Nolan’s and Boom Time Dumplings launch on Tuesday, weeks after the first venue Itinerant Spirits poured its first gin and tonic.
The Goods Shed is Melbourne catering company The Atlantic Group’s first regional project.
Executive chef Konstantin ‘Konny’ Putkin, who last year was named as Foodservice Australia’s Chef of the Year, leads the kitchens across all venues.
Nolan’s celebrates all things local, sourcing produce from and around Ballarat where it can for its contemporary menu.
Expect appearances from Inglenook Dairy, The Mushroom Connection and Salt Kitchen Charcuterie.
Boom Time Dumplings aims to fill the city’s wonton-shaped hole with a mix of street food such as dumplings, confit duck spring rolls and kung pow chicken.
The Atlantic Group chief executive Hatem Saleh said opening in Ballarat was a no-brainer.
“We’ve always been a Melbourne-based caterer and we had aspirations, with the right project, to go regional,” he said.
“We landed on Ballarat, due to its tourism and hospitality scene, and since we went regional we have been approached by other areas such as Geelong and Bendigo to do the same.”
Nolan’s, open daily from 6.30am-late
Boom Time Dumplings, Tues-Sun, from noon-9pm
Wagyu Ya lands in Glen Waverley
Wagyu Ya Teppanyaki has landed in Glen Waverley.
After the success of its South Yarra and Chinatown outposts, the Wagyu Ya Group opened its fourth at The Glen shopping centre this week.
Chefs Jason Yong and saucier Hori Shinshuke will fire up the teppanyaki grills sizzling their signature Kobe A5 wagyu beef steaks with a mix of French and Italian-inspired sauces.
Sushi chef Wataru Sato will helm the sashimi and maki bar.
Expect plenty of Kobe steak, which Wagyu Ya has the exclusive import licence for, alongside salt-baked abalone and scallop carpaccio with yuzu truffle sauce.
Wagyu Ya Teppanyaki, Level 1, Dining Terrace, 235 Springvale Rd, Glen Waverley, daily from 11.30am – 9.30pm wagyuyaathome.com.au
Cutler and Co chef fronts La Madonna
Chef Paul Turner has taken the reins at Next Hotel’s La Madonna restaurant.
The former Donovan’s and Cutler and Co chef replaces pals Adrian Li and Danny Natoli (Armadale’s Rina’s Cucina), who led the hotel’s opening in 2021.
Turner puts his spin on the restaurant’s distinct Milan-meets-Beijing cuisine, while keeping old faves firmly on the menu such as that dry-aged duck – now Aperol-glazed and aged for 14 days.
You’ll also see Hiramasa kingfish with spring onion and ginger and pan-fried gnocchi with kimchi, broccoli and fresh curds, and wagyu bresaola with romesco, pickled zucchini and togarashi.
Eat Pierogi, Make Love opens in Brunswick East
Xiao long bao and wontons are great, but have you tried pierogi?
Melbourne’s Guy Daley has been waving the flag for the perfectly pleated Polish dumpings for the past decade – and now has a permanent platform to do so.
Eat Pierogi, Make Love is the first bricks and mortar venue by Daley and his Polish-born wife Dominika Sikorska.
The power couple are behind food truck fave Pierogi Pierogi and opened the 70-seater restaurant on Lygon St in Brunswick East last week serving dumpings and other eastern European eats.
“I want people to think of Poland less as a rural, poverty stricken, vodka-ravaged country and to celebrate a cuisine that has lots of colour, light and flavour,” he said.
“And that it stands up to any Asian dumpling.”
Ola Gladysz (ex-Neptune, Borsch Vodka and Tears) has come on as head chef, spinning a mix of homely and vibrant Polish drinking snacks such as pasztet (pate), oscypek (mountain cheese) and cabanossi (sausage).
Larger dishes include a springtime baby beetroot soup (botwinka) made with coconut cream for plant-based eaters.
And if you’re after a stiff drink, Daley has you covered.
“We’ve got a strong vodka list, filled with traditional Polish vodka and ‘old-style’ vodka made with non-rectified spirits,” he said.
“In other words, they don’t clean them up during distillation. They have a lot of character and body, so you can have shots or try them in our classic cocktails.
We’ve Eastern European-ised them.”
Think plum brandy negronis and a twist on Aperol spritz made with lemon vodka.
Eat Pierogi, Make Love, 161 Lygon St, East Brunswick, open Thurs to Sat for dinner. Open Thurs to Mon from December. pierogipierogi.com
Attica cake queen opens Mietta by Rosemary
Melbourne lockdown cake queen Rosemary Andrews is opening her first shop.
Mietta by Rosemary is set to open in Malvern, selling cakes, bakes and other sweet treats from early next month.
Andrews is a rising star in the city’s pastry circles, loved by many for her artful dessert boxes and dazzling “dessert trolley of dreams” at Attica Summer Camp pop-up in 2021.
The pastry chef has signed a six-month lease on the Glenferrie Rd shop, which she’s hoping leads to bigger and better things.
“Mietta is also a good opportunity to evolve from the Instagram platform to see how the
community responds to a long-term bricks-and-mortar business,” she said.
“Hopefully it will be a stepping stone to another property and my dream bakery.”
Expect a solid line-up of Rosemary signatures, including her eight-layer carrot cake, honey espresso, dulce de leche layer cake and negroni chocolate tart.
Her dulcey baked cheesecake, valrhona chocolate cake, lemon tart and focaccia will also make an appearance.
Andrews spent two years trying to find the right location for her first store, but took the leap after the success of her one-day pop-up at Richmond’s Co Bake Space earlier this year.
Mietta is Italian for ‘sweet little thing’ and Rosemary is ‘remembrance.’
“If you reverse that I translate it to ‘Remember the sweet little things in life’, like the moments we have with cake,” she said.
Mietta by Rosemary, 23 Glenferrie Road, Malvern. Open Fri-Sun from 10am until sold out.
Sunda reopens with familiar look and feel
After a three-week hiatus, Sunda; the CBD laneway restaurant, reopened last week with chef Nabil Ansari (ex-Firebird) returning as head chef.
Ansari was part of Sunda’s opening kitchen team.
He’s putting a twist on classic southeast Asian cuisine, drawing on his heritage and recent research trip to Singapore and Malaysia for menu inspiration.
Expect Indonesian crisp pie tee shells filled with savoury corn custard and mixed preserved vegetables; seasonal veggie ‘rojak’ with star fruit; mushroom bak kut teh and tau fu fah made with organic soybeans.
Bistro Morgan chef opens Maven in Fitzroy
Like tween popstars shaking off their childish demeanour, kid doughnut prodigy Morgan Hipworth is determined to do the same with his first restaurant.
All-day eatery Maven is set to open in Fitzroy this December.
Hipworth, who is just shy of turning 23, has been in the industry for a decade after building his doughnut empire Bistro Morgan while at high school.
He’s since worked with Amaru’s Clinton McIvor, Atlas’s Charlie Carrington and most recently George Calombaris and Shannon Bennett – and hopes his new restaurant will redefine his public perception.
“There’s this narrative in people’s minds that ‘I’m the doughnut kid’, but I’m not a kid anymore,” he said.
“Maven will be great as I’ll be able to show them I am more than that.”
Hipworth will work alongside former Lona Misa senior sous chef Daniel Neytha; his Colombian heritage influencing the menu.
The young chef will use tricks he’s learned in the pastry game over the years for his savouries.
“I come from a dessert mindset when I approach these dishes – I like to build on the textures and flavours,” Hipworth said.
Expect classic brunch dishes, such as chilli scramble on yoghurt flatbread and avocado on toast with stracciatella.
Duck waffles – a confit leg atop of a sweet potato waffle – is sure to be a favourite.
Hipworth will roll out a procession of modern Australian faves, such as ceviche, rib-eye steak with chimichurri and shallots and a slow-roasted lamb.
There’ll also be Latin American flavours in the mix: mushroom empanadas, jalepeno croquettes and crispy fried cauliflower with a ‘patatas bravas’ sauce.
Maven, 402 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Subtle Tea quenches summer thirst
In this new-age world of drinking, fizzing with “hard” lemonades and boozy sparkling water, a local entrepreneur has reinvented an old favourite for summer.
Brunswick woman Sammy Griggs has taken thirst quencher iced tea and laced it with booze for her new drink, Subtle Tea.
The first of its kind product was a hit last summer, with a recent crowd-funding campaign financially fuelling this season’s supply.
Unlike other boozy, pre-batched products, Subtle Tea is made by cold-brewing black tea leaves with fresh fruit concentrate, which is later spiked with local vodka.
“I use regular black tea. We did a lot of trialling with different types of black tea, but the fancier ones didn’t taste as nice,” she said.
“We started with only one lemon flavour, but have since expanded to apple, blood orange and watermelon and mint.”
Griggs said “hard” iced tea was huge in the US, but she found Aussie drinkers were buying it for other reasons.
“The trend here is clean eating and drinking,” she said.
“I like to eat clean and avoid preservatives and nasties in general, so when I was looking for an alcoholic drink I couldn’t find anything that ticked my boxes. That’s why I started making it at home.”
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