Cheeky wine bar with soul and nibbles to match opens in Hobart
New wine bar Sonny, from the team that gave us Templo, is warm and welcoming and just a little bit fancy, writes AMANDA VALLIS.
Taste Tasmania
Don't miss out on the headlines from Taste Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
SONNY is the kind of wine bar every town needs. It’s fancy enough to dust off a nice dress and head there for a date night, but also relaxed enough to pop in solo on the way home from work for a sneaky Negroni.
Once inside, I feel as though I could very well be in one of those little hole-in-the-wall places you might find down a nondescript cobblestone lane somewhere on the other side of the world.
The atmosphere is instantly welcoming, and the small team gives off the vibe that there is nowhere else they’d rather be.
Sonny is the latest offering by the same team who gave us Templo — chef Matt Breen and restaurateur Chris Chapple.
I’m my mother’s daughter and therefore usually gravitate towards an old-school buttery chardonnay, so I must admit that I initially approach the West Australian riesling that the bartender, Bobby, recommends with caution.
Slightly cloudy in appearance, I am pleasantly surprised that the taste isn’t far off from the classic chardy that I normally seek out.
The wine list is predominantly wines made with minimal intervention with a focus on small, interesting producers, both European and Australian.
Venue manager Alister Robertson tells me later that Bobby is in fact a winemaker as well as a member of the Sonny team, and he’s heading to Bordeaux in a few months to make wine for one of the major wine houses there.
Like Bobby, Alister knows his stuff when it comes to wine, but is happy to skip the “wine speak” in favour of chatting to patrons about their day or about the record he’s chosen to play from the collection (he and Bobby take turns choosing). John Lee Hooker is playing on the night we’re there.
Working within the means of the tiny kitchen space located at the back end of the bar, Matt’s menu is intentionally simple, and designed to allow the quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves.
With six dishes listed on the blackboard, we order one of everything.
First up, celery and stracciatella. This is an unlikely combination, but I immediately make plans to attempt to replicate it at home.
It comprises a thick layer of stracciatella topped with crunchy celery (stalk and leaves), a few slices of radish, roasted almonds and smothered in olive oil.
Next up is cucumber topped with taramasalata (the dip of all dips, in my opinion) and roe, a joyful combination of textures and flavours, once again with crisp cucumber, house-made taramasalata and the pop of the roe.
Bobby spies my wine glass is almost empty and suggests a dry rosé to go with the prosciutto toast that is about to follow.
My uni days have left me averse to anything that remotely resembles one of those bright pink, sickly sweet rosés, so I am delighted that this one is bone dry.
Alister tells me that the wine was made especially for Sonny by winemaker Patrick Sullivan.
Breen says that the prosciutto toast will be the only dish that remains constant on the otherwise ever-changing menu that revolves around the seasons and available local ingredients.
There is a layer of bity, white anchovy salsa verde on Imago Toast, mellowed with ribbons of prosciutto piled on top.
Maiale tonnato is next. A riff on the traditional Italian dish vitello tonnato which is a tuna sauce topped with sliced veal, Matt has subbed the veal with thinly sliced pork that he sources from local pig farmer Luke Trengove.
“We buy a whole pig from Luke each week,” Matt says. “And we try and use every part of the animal to make up the different dishes we serve here at Sonny and over at Templo.”
I became a big fan of the traditional version of this dish while on exchange in Italy 10 years ago, and while my Italian mates would probably have a heart attack at the thought of tweaking the usual ingredients,
I really like it with the pork — perhaps even more than the veal version.
I’m still happily nursing my rosé, but throughout our meal Bobby continues to attentively top up my dining companions’ wine glasses, offering tastes of this and that until there is a mutual nod of “yes, this is the one”.
Meanwhile, Matt is cooking our Bucatini all’Amatriciana on the lone induction stove, and it arrives to our table steaming hot.
Just like the pasta dishes at Templo, it is utter heaven, which culminates in a “fight of the forks”, with each of us vying for the final twirl of pasta left on the plate.
There is a single sweet option on the menu and tonight it’s tiramisu, which arrives atop a dessert spoon, layers of sponge, coffee, mascarpone and an added biscuity crunch.
I’m not big on large, heavy desserts so I like that there is the option to top off our meal with something small and sweet.
Gourmet farmer dishes up all the dirt on soil in his new book
Former food critic and now farmer Matthew Evans is on a mission to educate people about a vital part of our world that goes largely unnoticed but is vital to keeping the earth, and us, healthy
Authentic Afghan experience serves up community spirit
Moonah’s Zafira Fine Foods not only gives locals the chance to sample Afghani food but also acts as a community hub for the approximately 300 Hazara people who have settled in Hobart