Pipi’s Kiosk in Albert Park has seriously good salt and pepper squid

This new Albert Park seaside kiosk-by-day, wine bar-by-night has epic bayside views and some seriously good salt and pepper squid.

“This is astonishing,” my dinner date exclaimed, her eyes bright with delight and she wasn’t talking about the sunset — though well she might’ve been, for there are few better views of Port Phillip’s expanse of sky and sea than that enjoyed from the kiosk on the Albert Park beach.

Looking out towards the anglers at the end of the Kerford Road pier, the former Nshry site has been transformed into a beach-bright breezy takeaway kiosk and dining-room-slash-wine bar by Tom Hunter and Jordan Clay.

Since October the duo has been welcoming bayside locals to their kiosk window for takeaway coffees in the morning and cold craft tinnies and pet nat in the arvo and fish and chips to eat on the sand but it was just last month that their original vision of a modern wine bar on the beach properly came to life.

The salt and pepper squid at Pipi's Kiosk in Albert Park is ‘astonishingly good’. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Pipi’s Kiosk sees Hunter and Clay reunite having worked together at Flinders Lane’s acclaimed Oter, with Hunter’s forward-looking drinks list here complementing Clay’s modern Australian fare forged from stints in kitchens including Pei Modern and Cumulus Up.

Seafood is an expected focus of the succinct menu here and it was the salt and pepper squid rather than the view that caught the eye and stole the heart of the seat opposite me.

Making a strong case as being Australia’s new national dish, the version Clay’s serving here is quite simply best in class.

Tender tiles with just a touch of satisfying bite, the flesh gets a lick of garlic and ginger before being fried to a crunch in a delicate tempura-like batter. A sprinkle of nori salt for sea seasoning and a squeeze of lemon and you have the best of the beach in fancy fried form ($20).

The room is almost as lovely as the view, blonde wood tables and sand-coloured chairs bring the beach in and the 40-seater fills quickly with people who all seem to know each other.

It might be a local’s joint for now but it has fish that’s seriously cross-town-for good. Swordfish wouldn’t ordinarily be my first choice of fish but in Clay’s hands it’s terrific — tender but meaty and firm fleshed, its time on the grill complemented by a dressing of green olives, capers, apricot and tarragon sublime and completely addictive ($35).

Steamed gurnard is equally respectfully treated, its caper and preserved lemon sauce bright, a dashi broth adding umami depth with charred baby cos with smoky crunch served to the side. Lovely stuff ($38).

Swordfish with green olive dressing. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

A green salad beautifully dressed to retain crunch to the end is all you might need alongside ($9), but for those looking for carbs but not in chip form — though they’re on offer — the potato salad is an inventive, alluring alternative. Smashed steamed spuds come surrounded by a cloud of potato foam, grilled swiss chard leaves and crushed almonds add leafy crunch while powerful chilli oil brings lingering heat ($26).

Earlier, a bowl of bucatini — thick spaghetti-like pasta with a centre hole — comes tossed through a generous amount of small sweet Goolwa pipis in the shell, the glug of Pernod they’re cooked in delivering real aniseed bite. Finished with a handful of toasted breadcrumbs and it’s a bowl that’s lick-clean good ($29).

Hunter’s drinks list is inventive and filled with interest everywhere you look, whether it’s a V + T that uses local Grainshaker corn vodka and Strangelove watermelon tonic ($14), a voluptuous Nagambie roussane by the $15 glass, chilled red by the bottle or nice line-up of Pennyweight fortifieds from Beechworth, there are many delicious discoveries with Hunter a happy, helpful guide.

Pipis bucatini. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Though summer’s long gone, starting with a spritz still seems a good idea when surrounded by sand and the version here with rhubarb cordial, toasted coconut, local bitters and topped with pet-nat (naturally sparkling wine) garnished with foraged saltbush is a spritz with a twist perfectly on theme — and delicious ($18).

A selection of snacks to start ($20 pp) could include a small bowl of terrific chowder, supremely tasty stuffed chicken wing and salt cod croquettes that needed a bit more baccala to sing of the sea. A serve of great airy, salty, bouncy focaccia studded with grapes, with cultured butter and a lovely dukkah-topped carrot dip to spread across is $5 a head very well spent, as is a slice of ruby grapefruit and passionfruit tart, the creamy-sharp curd countered with a lightly smoked cream ($15).

For such a big bay we’re surprisingly coy about making the wine-dine most of it and along the Millionaire’s Mile that is Beaconsfield Parade there are few places the public can properly enjoy it with drink in hand.

But Pipi’s has come to the rescue with class.

Pipi's Kiosk in Albert Park. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

PIPI’S KIOSK

129A Beaconsfield Pde, Albert Park

Open: Lunch Fri-Sun; dinner Thurs-Sat. Takeaway from 7am daily.

pipiskiosk.com.au