What’s new on the Mornington Peninsula
Check out the fresh offerings and old favourites at one of Melbourne’s favourite playgrounds.
Check out the fresh offerings and old favourites at one of Melbourne’s favourite playgrounds.
1 The big news on the peninsula for 2022 is the Conti, aka the Continental Hotel. This iconic 1875 pub on Ocean Beach Road, fresh from a $100m-plus makeover, now brims with new food and drink venues run by star chef Scott Pickett. Options range from Audrey’s, for special-occasion dining and sea views, to the glass-roofed Atrium restaurant, al fresco bites at The Promenade and live entertainment and lush drinks at late-night cocktail den Barlow. Coming soon to the six-level seaside compound, a spa and bathhouse, and a 108-room InterContinental Hotel with pool-deck perched above the bay. Expect a late-winter opening for the latter.
2 At sharply designed Red Hill restaurant Many Little, executive chef Gayan Pieris draws on his Sri Lankan heritage to spice up the local dining scene. Drop by the new bar for casual snacking on cuttlefish with green papaya, or smoky coal-cooked chicken with roti canai with one of the clever house cocktails or something from the substantial list of local and European wines. In the restaurant – warm, woody, candlelit, and fragrant with spices – the banquet-sized set menu starts with luscious bites such as puffed puri bread with spanner crab, smoked eel and finger lime, segues into mid-sized dishes like the steamed kingfish in banana leaf, and culminates in a dauntingly large thali plate laden with hoppers (crepes), a couple of profoundly flavoured curries, dahl, roti and biting condiments. Bring your best appetite.
3 Arthur’s Seat, actually the peak of an extinct volcano, is the highest point on the peninsula with sweeping views to landmarks near – McCrae lighthouse, Rosebud pier – and far – the You Yangs and Otway Ranges. There’s a chairlift and restaurant up here but also a lovely walk through the formal European plantings and bushland at Seawinds Gardens. Keep an eye out for the Matthew Flinders Cairn, erected to commemorate Flinders’ climb to this summit in 1802, and side tracks leading to wet-season cascades. The short, kilometre-long Circuit Walk among blackwoods and stringybarks (shared with kangaroos at dusk) is part of the much longer Two Bays Walking Track, a 26km route linking Dromana on Port Phillip Bay with Cape Schanck on Western Port Bay.
4 Great wine needs good food, and there’s no shortage of impressive vineyard restaurants such as Ten Minutes by Tractor, for French-influenced plates starring local and Australian produce. Perhaps Manjimup marron with tomatoes from Daniel’s Run Farm at Tyabb, or O’Connor short rib with foie gras and black truffle. Stellar wine list, naturally. For formal dining in architectural surrounds try Port Phillip Estate or Pt Leo Estate, home to a significant sculpture collection and the 35-seat destination restaurant Laura. At Merrick’s General Wine Store you’ll find cellar door wines from the home estates of Baillieu and Elgee Park wineries, excellent bistro food by Guy Stanaway, ex-Jackalope, as well as a deli, art gallery and Paul Bangay-designed courtyard.
5 Penny and Graeme Hart’s farm in the Shoreham hinterland is the spot to stock up on extra virgin olive oil (they have 1300 trees on the property) and fruit-based alcohol. The olives came first; the apples later. “We planted apples because we thought more people would come for booze than olive oil,” Graeme says. He spent time in France studying the “nectar of Normandy’’ and now makes seven types of bottle-fermented cider including a prosecco-style sparkling pear, quince and apple version, another spiced with cinnamon and star anise, and a cidre noir blended with pinot noir. Beside the orchard lies The Retreat, a stylish, self-contained holiday home with professional kitchen, log fire and large deck with valley views.
6 The former thoroughbred stable of racing legends the Freedman Brothers is now a rambunctious brewery making and serving beers, seltzers and ciders (the old racetrack’s now a heritage-apple orchard). Try The Strapper, the best-selling classic lager at St Andrews Beach Brewery, the 6 Furlongs pale ale, or a paddle of four of their best beers. The vast space accommodates hundreds but the sought-after seats for bistro dining (pizzas, burgers, snacks) are in the converted stables. Three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva’s stall is especially popular.
7 At Jimmy Rum, former merchant seaman turned craft distiller James McPherson produces “aged cane spirits’’ – better known as rum – from an Italian still called Matilda. McPherson’s a jovial evangelist when it comes to rum and leads enlightening tastings taking visitors deep into the characters of cane juice. The distillery’s also a cocktail bar and rum garden. Go for tacos and trivia on Thursday night or live music at the popular Sunday sessions. Jimmy Rum is tucked in the surprisingly vibrant Dromana industrial park – home to more than half a dozen alcohol producers (most with bars), a surfboard-maker, baker, coffee roaster … even a candle-maker.
8 Thanks to its volcanic origins the peninsula is blessed with hot springs. But until recently bathing options have been limited to Peninsula Hot Springs, a 700-person thermal theme park with accommodation in rural Fingal. Opening in September down the road, Alba Hot Springs and Spa taps into the same geothermal basin to feed its 31 pools of varying sizes and styles – geothermal, cold-plunge, herbal-infused. Set in 15ha of gardens and bush, the sleek but imposing spa complex will feature 21 treatment rooms and dozens of pampering options in wet rooms, steam rooms, Vichy showers and three rooftop pools, The Terraces, for private bathing. There will also be a restaurant, Thyme, with menus by Karen Martini and a mostly local liquor offering.
9 Singling out noteworthy vineyards here is fraught with responsibility, but a few worth considering: the pioneering Crittenden’s was planted by Garry Crittenden in 1982, now run by his children Rollo and Zoe, and best known for sustainable agriculture and elegant Italian grape styles such as tempranillo and sangiovese. At the picturebook-pretty Ocean Eight estate, winemaker Mike Aylward focuses on making elegant pinot gris and chardonnay that reflect their roots. Destination winery Montalto has a new Discovery experience that starts with a sampling of latest-release wines in their scenic tasting room followed by lunch in the garden piazza and a stroll along their sculpture trail through vines and bushland.
BEST BEDS
10 When the 43-room Jackalope Hotel opened in 2017 it brought a designer cred the peninsula had always lacked. The guestrooms – black, glossy, seductive – have romantic vineyard views on one side above a glamorous 30m black-tiled pool and sunset-catching cocktail deck. There’s terrific bistro fare at Rare Hare, a rustic cellar door for tastings of onsite Willow Creek wines, theatrical dining at Doot Doot Doot and innovative cocktails in avant-garde cocktail bar Flaggerdoot. Beach visits aside there’s little need to venture outside the grounds. But if wanderlust strikes, Jackalope’s well placed to take advantage of all this holiday coast has to offer.
Kendall Hill was a guest of a Visit Victoria.