TasWeekend Indulge: Sophie Bermudes the French connection at Milton vineyard at Swansea on Tasmania’s East Coast

“Lunch with a view,” reads the no-nonsense sign as we pull into one of many vineyards dotted along Tasmania’s East Coast. It gives little hint of the delicieux experience waiting within.

Sophie's at Milton restaurant at Swansea offers French-style dining by the vines. Picture: LIBBY SUTHERLAND

LUNCH with a view, reads the no-nonsense sign as we pull into one of many vineyards dotted along Tasmania’s East Coast. It gives little hint of the delicieux experience waiting within.

Just north of Swansea on the Tasman Highway, Milton’s cellar door has long been a favourite pitstop of mine to grab a couple of bottles of rosé for our biannual weekend in Bicheno. This time, however, we have perfectly timed our arrival for lunch at Sophie’s.

Diners on the deck and under a giant gum tree by the dam at Sophie's at Milton. Picture: LIBBY SUTHERLAND

As we head past the cellar door and out to the deck around noon on a sunny Saturday many tables are already taken. And the smells wafting from the compact kitchen fronting onto the deck are encouraging to say the least.

ON THE MENU Cheese and prosciutto croquettes, $15; fish of the day with potato foam, spring onion, parmesan crumble and caperberries, $35; beef tartare with hand-cut French fries, $30.

Our table for two overlooks a beautifully reflective dam and row upon row of lush green grape vines under a bright blue sky beyond. A family of purple swamphens is snacking in the dam’s shallows, eating tender shoots they pluck from the water.

A Kiwi waiter with a man bun and Birkenstocks brings out a large menu board, propping it against the window. He lets us know we can buy wine for the table at the cellar door, the fish of the day is blue eye, and the special is beef tartare.

We order the fish and the tartare as well as a shared entrée of croquettes. Three cigar-shaped croquettes arrive about half a glass of riesling later, golden and crisp on the outside and hot, cheesy and gooey inside with occasional chunks of salty prosciutto. A creamy mayonnaise and peppery salad leaves complete the plate, which is scattered with piment d’Espelette chilli sourced from the south-west of France that adds quite a zing.

The cheese and proscuitto croquettes with a glass of Milton rose. Picture: LIBBY SUTHERLAND

Beef tartare with hand-cut French fries and a simple green salad. Picture: SUPPLIED

The fish dish that follows is superb. The succulent skin-on fillet rests on pillowy potato foam and charred spring onions, surrounded by a butter-rich parmesan crumble and given an extra shot of saltiness by the addition of caperberries. I don’t want it to end.

The tartare is equally good, with the Cape Grim eye fillet enlivened with mushrooms, capers, confit tomatoes and parmesan. It’s served with a simple salad and a mountain of hand-cut skin-on fries. So good. It’s by far the best meal I have eaten on the East Coast since a visit to Saffire in 2010.

Fish of the day — blue eye — with potato foam, spring onion, parmesan crumb and caperberries. Picture: SUPPLIED.

Running the kitchen is 27-year-old Sophie Bermudes, a Bordeaux-trained chef who first visited and then worked at Milton while back-packing around Australia about five years ago.

At the time, it was home to a tapas-style eatery run by Jahan Patterson-Ware. When she later found out on the grapevine that Jahan had left, Sophie approached the vineyard owners — the Dunbabins — with an offer to make the restaurant her own. The table service is provided by her husband, Richie Ferguson, who is also a sommelier.

Sophie describes her food as brasserie/bistro style — “accessible for the price and it’s really good and tasty”. “Everything is fresh and I know where it comes from,” she says. “There’s a lot of south-west France inspiration because I come from there. We have beautiful produce to work with.” Mais oui, bien sûr.

Agapanthas line the veranda leading into the cellar door at Milton. Picture: LIBBY SUTHERLAND.

But if you want to try Sophie’s food for yourself, you’ll have to get in quick. After three seasons at Milton, she will be finishing up on April 29. Her last hurrah ahead of her return to France will be a special farewell event on the Mother’s Day weekend in May. The restaurant will then close until September, with picnickers welcome in the interim.

“It’s going to be really sad,” she says. “I get along really well with the owners of the vineyard, they have become my family.”

She says she is hoping to help find another chef to take over who is similarly enthused by the region’s great produce.

Au revoir, Sophie, I am very sad you are leaving too.

SOPHIE’S AT MILTON

Open Thursday to Monday, 11.30am to 4.30pm. 14635 Tasman Highway, Swansea. 0448 500 136, 0450 211 939. www.sophiesatmilton.com.au