TasWeekend: New Hobart cafe offers fellowship and comfort in the form of food
Leading Hobart foodie Chloe Proud, who co-created award winning eatery Ethos, is celebrating a fresh new start with her new venture.
Taste Tasmania
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CHLOE Proud knows how to create a beautiful space. Often engaged to style local events and weddings, Proud also gave us Ethos Eat Drink, Vita and Alceme Kitchen, all of which featured her signature aesthetic.
Having recently sold Vita and her other successful brand, Tasmanian Juice Press, she has now embarked on her next venture, Oddfellows. Cafe by day and bar/restaurant by night, Oddfellows is located within the Alceme building on Victoria St, also the previous site of the well-known Sirens Night Club.
Proud took over the space 10 months ago initially operating under the existing Alceme Kitchen banner, but behind the scenes Proud, business partner Niall Maurici and chef Jess Barcza were busy brewing up the Oddfellows concept.
By day, Oddfellows serves cafe fare including Barcza’s herbed scrambled eggs that garnered their own loyal following since they first hit the menu under the venue’s previous iteration. Buttered, thick-cut sourdough toast topped with a pillowy cloud of scrambled eggs that have been folded through with chopped fresh herbs and topped with vibrant nasturtium petals, I can see why they are so loved.
I order sides of labneh with dukkha and house-made pickles all of which oozes freshness and care, something that seems to carry through not only the food but through all aspects of the venue. The teas, for example are all hand-blended (no tired tea bags here!). I order the ‘Revive blend’ which includes lemon balm, ginger, turmeric and aniseed.
Sodas are also made in-house (try rhubarb and rose or mandarin and tarragon) and cold-pressed juices change daily depending on what’s available. The coffee is also fantastic with batch brew and the usual espresso options on offer. Matcha and turmeric latte fiends and chai lovers are also covered.
Along with the famous scramble, there is also a daily sandwich, a frittata with greens, a continental breakfast, a grain bowl with veg and ferments and more. The impressive wine list (devised by Proud) is also available with the brunch/lunch menu.
While it’s clear that Barcza nails cafe fare, dinner service is where she really gets to flex her creative muscle, serving up a colourful Middle Eastern inspired menu that is an absolute joy to eat.
“Coming up with the menu was us being a little bit selfish,” says Proud. “We really just wanted to be able to go somewhere for a drink and eat something nourishing and fresh so that’s what we created.”
It’s true. There is ZERO stodge here which is such a nice feeling. Barcza’s version of a grazing platter for example, is a condiment set, which features crunchy vegetable crudites, house-made seed crackers, pickles, onion and parsley salad and a little pot of herb yoghurt for dipping ($14).
The menu has also been heavily influenced by the work placement program that is operated by Hobart’s Migrant Resource Centre.
“I have been so lucky to be able to learn how to prepare some of these dishes from the staff who have come across from MRC to work with us. They are so incredibly generous with their time and it’s because of them that we are able to represent dishes in a truly authentic way,” Barcza says.
The kubbah that appears on the menu for example, is a secret family recipe that came directly from MRC program participant, Nagham Al-knani. These are crispy deep-fried parcels of rice dough and mushrooms and they are ridiculously good. There is also Ma’noush (a Middle Eastern flatbread), an adaptation of a ‘laffa’ dough recipe perfected by Barcza in collaboration with Al-knani. It is charred on the outside and fluffy on the inside, served sprinkled with za’tar.
Along with the kubbah and the ma’noush, we also order mushroom skewers with chermoulah salsa and house-made hummus topped with braised lamb and herbs before progressing to chicken with barberries and okra craimeh (braised okra with a fragrant tomato sauce). That freshness and care carries through here as well.
The cocktail menu by award-winning bartender and co-owner Niall Maurici is also a reason to visit in its own right. The small but considered list features Maurici’s own take on classic favourites like a classic Aperol spritz with the addition of rhubarb and rose or the martini that is made with bread vodka and the addition of lemon myrtle oil. His whisky sour is blended scotch, carrot, turmeric, lemon, chocolate and egg whites and if you’re off the booze there are grown up non-alcoholic options like the ‘Clear Head’ that features non-alcoholic distilled ‘spirit’, Seedlip, together with green pea and kaffir lime leaf.
Looking around the venue, the dinner crowd somewhat reflects the name of the venue – there is an obvious first date on the table next to us, old friends catching up for dinner, work mates congregating in the booths to celebrate the end of the week and a few people perched at the bar for a quick drink and a cheeky cocktail.
No matter what your own particular brand of ‘odd’ may be, there is something for everyone at this beautiful and considered locale.
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