TasWeekend: Red Velvet Lounge sitting pretty

AFTER a fire, a long restoration and a brief closure, Cygnet’s Red Velvet Lounge is back in business but heading in a different direction under its new owners.

The beetroot burger includes a beetroot-stained roll enfolding a crisp quinoa patty and slice of melted cheese enlivened by the sweet-and-sour flavours of cooked and pickled beetroot. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

AFTER a fire, a long restoration and a brief closure, Cygnet’s Red Velvet Lounge is back in business but heading in a different direction under its new owners, chef Isabel Sykes and her partner Joe Pickett.

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“We are trying something new — a cafe with a strong ethical commitment. One that meets our three ethical pillars: local, seasonal and vegetarian,” they say.

The cafe is now completely vegetarian, and Sykes says menus reflect the best local seasonal produce, “including a carefully curated Tasmanian drinks menu”.

“It’s really back to basics,” she says. “Food as it should be. Food that is fresh and tastes fresh. Which means the menu will change regularly and with the seasons.”

The couple made a conscious decision to not promote vegetarianism.

“We prefer for customers to experience and enjoy good, wholesome food, irrespective of whether it’s vegetarian,” Sykes says.

Before jumping in the restaurant deep end, Pickett was a logistician involved in festivals such as MoFo, while Sykes specialised in event catering.

The revamped Red Velvet Lounge in Cygnet. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Restaurants are different and they are still feeling their way, testing menus, seeing what customers want and, a big job for Sykes, learning to master the kitchen’s cavernous 1922 Dutch oven.

The results — at this early stage, at least — are limited menus listing just four choices plus, on our Saturday lunchtime visit, two daily blackboard specials with a selection of cakes and such desserts as apple and ricotta crumble available from the display cabinet.

Sykes says they will expand the choices as they go, which I’m sure the locals are looking forward to as much as they enjoy crisp wood-fired pizzas from the Dutch oven on Friday nights when RVL becomes a musical entertainment and performance space as well as a restaurant.

At lunch, my wife had a beetroot burger comprising a beetroot-stained roll enfolding a crisp quinoa patty and slice of melted cheese enlivened by the sweet and sour flavours of cooked and pickled beetroot. My wife found it so tasty she allowed me a only single bite.

On the other hand, my vegetarian lasagne was a bit of a mess, the cooking fine but the presentation formless and with so many mild and competing flavours that they seemed to have cancelled each other out.

The woodfired pumpkin and pesto lasagna with Alex's greens Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Later, Sykes showed us a stunning assortment of different and differently coloured mushrooms from the local mushroom farm, which she often serves with soba noodles. In their colour and flavoursome simplicity, I thought they might also have improved the lasagne.

So, based on our experience and their admission, they still have a way to go to get the RVL back to the much-loved and quality position it once held.

But it is still early days and if their energy and enthusiasm are to be rewarded, I feel they will get there.

Red Velvet Lounge, 24 Mary St, Cygnet. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 9am-5pm; meals, pizza and music Friday from 6pm; and dinner Saturday, from 6pm. Licensed, 6295 0466.

Originally published as TasWeekend: Red Velvet Lounge sitting pretty