Weekend review: Main Ridge Harvest

A NEW Mornington Peninsula cafe delivers food from the farm gate to your plate, with a picture-perfect outlook, writes Simon Plant.

Customers enjoy a coffee on the outside deck. Picture: Sarah Matray

IF YOU’RE after a picture-perfect vision of autumn, prop yourself on the outside deck at Main Ridge Harvest ... and look west.

A post and rail fence in front of you hems in pines, gums and sloping beds of lavender.

Beyond that, emerald grass pasture sweeps up to a ridge line flashing with red and gold.

It’s a bucolic scene and best taken with Little Rebel coffee or a glass of Shoreham’s Ocean Eight rose.

Both are on the list at Main Ridge Harvest, a newish country cafe in the Mornington Peninsula’s hinterland.

Baked goods are a highlight here — as they were when this site hosted Johnny Ripe — but the new team (guided by Red Hill’s Epicurean) is lifting the bar with all-day brunch items, grazing plates and an ambitious Saturday night menu.

Buckwheat griddle cakes with maple syrup and clotted cream. Picture: Sarah Matray.

FOOD

It’s one thing to say you focus on “regional and farmgate produce’’. It’s quite another to deliver on that, week-in, week-out.

But Main Ridge Harvest is doing its darnedest to meet that commitment with locally sourced ingredients, from hens’ eggs and twice-smoked bacon to sourdough bread, artisanal cheese and beer.

During our visit, a lady in gumboots came through the kitchen door with a box of herbs under her arm. Chef Paul Sanguinetti explained these were “Mary’s greens” and worked them into two pleasing brunch dishes.

Baked hens eggs, Tuscan white beans and black cabbage. Picture: Sarah Matray

Cabinet in Main Ridge Harvest. Picture: Sarah Matray

Red mustard leaves added peppery notes to “wild herb and duck linguine” ($22) with blistered grapes and hazelnut crème, while teeny watercress leaves adorned a brittle tart stacked with ocean trout, peas and Main Ridge Dairy goat’s cheese ($17), made at a farm up the road.

Both are billed as “things that go with local wine and beer’’ (11.30am-3pm), but they do a good breakfast as well. Look for the “Harvest jaffle’’ ($16), sticky with Swiss cheese and caramelised onion; pliable buckwheat griddlecakes drenched in maple syrup ($16); and, best of all, a red-hot pan baked to the brim with bright yellow googies, Tuscan beans, white sausage (boudin blanc) and dollops of pesto ($18).

To finish? Marry Mornington Peninsula cheese with tawny port jelly and drunken figs ($24), or in the front cabinet you might find Johnny Ripe apple pie with lemon cream ($14).

 

Main Ridge Harvest Cafe serves Little Rebel coffee. Picture: Sarah Matray.

DRINK

The cellar plays both sides of Port Phillip Bay with a tight but well-curated list of wines from the Mornington and Bellarine peninsulas. Most come by the glass.

Red Hill beers are well represented. So are Noah’s Creative Juices, from Valencia orange to apple, peach, kiwifruit, mango and lime.

 

SERVICE

Friendly. They talk up the specials, describe the soupe du jour and make us feel welcome.

Expect to get fed and watered in timely fashion.

Fireplace inside Main Ridge Harvest. Picture: Sarah Matray

X FACTOR

Main Ridge Harvest does the country casual thing pretty well. Cool ceramics and good glassware seal the deal.

 

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

Order brunch or go grazing and you won’t dent your wallet. Specialties on the dinner menu, such as pan-fried barramundi ($38), are on the higher side.

 

VERDICT

Enjoy the peninsula’s autumn glow, then get off the snaking bitumen and spend an hour at Main Ridge Harvest.

MAIN RIDGE HARVEST

284 Main Creek Rd, Main Ridge, 5989 6686

FOOD

Country cafe

HOURS

Fri-Tues, 8.30am-4pm, Saturday, dinner

CHEF

Paul Sanguinetti

BOOKINGS

Yes, for Saturday night

TIME BETWEEN ORDERING AND EATING

Six minutes

PERFECT FOR

Country breakfasts, fireplace dinners

DESTINATION DISH

Baked hens’ eggs, white beans, boudin blanc and black cabbage

NOISE LEVEL

Chirpy

ONLINE

mainridgeharvest.com.au

Chef Paul Sanguinetti in the kitchen. Picture: Sarah Matray

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LIKE THESE

WEST

Marty @ Oakdene

255 Grubb Rd, Wallington. Destination dish: Char-grilled calamari salad, green chilli dressing

NORTH

Lolo & Wren

484 Albion St, Brunswick West. Destination dish: Seasonal duck salad

EAST

Innocent Bystander

334 Maroondah Hwy, Healesville. Destination dish: Paella con carne

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