One Trick Pony Fitzroy North restaurant review: Bluebonnet Barbecue chef Chris Terlikar a jack of all trades, master of all

American barbecue is his game, yet this chef is serving everything from pasta to Spanish desserts at his new wine bar— so does he pull it off?

Kara Monssen

3 min read

November 17, 2022 - 9:01AM

Food

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Here’s an unsettling thought.

Arriving at your dinner booking to realise you’re the only two diners in the restaurant.

It’s not an abnormally early or late sitting, or an unpopular day of the week, but it certainly gets the mind ticking.

“Does this mean the restaurant is bad? Should we abort mission and settle for takeaway pizza instead? What am I going to talk to my husband about for 90 minutes?”

Spare a thought for the poor waiters, too, who are navigating a new social play on the fly: “How frequently do you replenish water, engage with the customer and when does friendly banter become bothersome or boring?”

Beef heart anticucho. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

It’s a lot for everyone, yet things aren’t always as they seem.

Your waiter may be a riot of fun, vivacious and intuitively know to pour another glass of that juicy local nebbiolo and when to wheel over the cocktail trolley for a tableside-made martini.

He may persuade you to try the beef heart anticucho ($12) – which isn’t as awful as you’d think, more a tender twist of rosy-rare meat expertly seasoned and threaded on a badass metal skull skewer; brightened by pickled shallots and a punchy salsa verde.

Basque cheesecake. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

You may hear the origin story of the restaurant’s basque cheesecake ($16) and how chef Chris Terlikar created the dish to one-up a chef mate (his version is brilliantly savoury with boozy, rum-steeped cherries).

Or how Chris’ brother Joe is the brains behind the ever-evolving “living mural” brushed on to the eggshell coloured walls of this Fitzroy North pub’s quaint upstairs dining room.

The next time you visit, the black crow perched above the mirror, a magpie in flight and cat and mouse near the stairs may have some new mates.

Your waiter will know to fill momentary silences when the vinyl record player lulls before the next track.

Or when to chime in with a cute story about his pet greyhound.

And also, he’ll know all the answers to your incessant, hyper-specific questions: yes, the chef used kataifi pastry to make a mini-cigar, stuff it with cured trout and anointed either end with Yarra Valley trout roe “adult popping candy” to give off wicked texture.

Trout, horseradish and creme fraiche. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

Yes, you can take any wine you’d like from the 150-bottle strong store downstairs to enjoy with your dinner for a $25 corkage fee. And if you ask nicely, you can buy a wine from the bluestone cellar hiding all the cool old stuff from Burgundy, Beaujolais and beyond.

The waiter will allow plenty of quieter moments, too, for you to marvel at the chef’s solo kitchen choreography.

You may witness the artful plating of the spanner crab chawanmushi ($28), a Japanese savoury egg custard beneath a wild flurry of fried saltbush that’s all about that crunch, yet it overpowers the custard.

Spanner crab chawanmushi. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

Stracciatella and buttermilk skillet biscuits. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

Or he may be skillet frying the most unbelievably moreish buttermilk biscuits ($16) in clarified butter (think scone meets shortcrust) for you to slather gooey stracciatella clouds and herb oil.

Cluey foodies may pick Chris’ Texas tricks from his years at Bluebonnet Barbecue up the road.

But the chef is out to prove he’s not a one trick pony (get it) and no rules are being followed here.

Worldly cuisines are thrown around like an Oprah gifting spree – Japanese, American, Spanish, Latin American and Italian flavours all get a go.

Cavatelli nibs shimmying in a braised goat ragu ($40) with loads of aged pecorino was a knockout dish — shame it’s been retired.

And before you ask, yes, Chris makes all of that pasta from scratch as well.

Once you’ve scraped the last of the cheesecake from the plate, it will not even register you were alone in the restaurant, especially when an expert crew of chefs, sommeliers and front-of-house legends have your back.

Well, at least that’s what I found at One Trick Pony.