TasWeekend Indulge: Cascade pub with few peers

A sudden cold snap calls for comfort food — and where better to find it with the minimum of fuss than a friendly neighbourhood pub? So it is we find ourselves at the Cascade Hotel in South Hobart.

The Cascade Brewery picnic in 1891 is one of many historic pictures adorning the walls at the Cascade Hotel. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

A sudden cold snap calls for comfort food — and where better to find it with the minimum of fuss than a friendly neighbourhood pub? So it is we find ourselves at the Cascade Hotel in South Hobart on a can’t-be-bothered-to-cook Tuesday evening.

My last visit was a few years ago with our now dear departed friend Tim Cox. No, he hasn’t crossed to the other side. He’s just moved to Brisbane.

To be on the safe side, our family group of four calls ahead to book. When we arrive, about 6.30pm, it’s pretty busy.

We receive a friendly greeting from licensee Mel Bush — who many may recognise from her time with Surf Life Saving Tasmania, the Hobart City Football Club and HOFM — as she guides us to our table.

Publican Mel Bush at work. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

The family friendly dining room at Cascade. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

To start, we order some dips and a very reasonably priced bottle of Stefano Lubiana pinot noir to share. My other half opts for bangers and mash and Mum orders a small parmigiana, while my sister decides to try the wallaby fillet and I gravitate to the steak.

In a nod to a local history of the area penned by academic extraordinaire Dr Alison Alexander, who lives in the neighbouring suburb of Dynnyrne, the steaks are named after some of the 12 pubs that once operated in the area — The Steam Hammer, The Maid of Erin and The Northumberland among them.

I opt for The Greyhound, an establishment that once traded next to The Globe on the cusp of South Hobart and Sandy Bay.

The Greyhound steak (200g eye fillet) with pepper sauce, chips and salad. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

After the publican was found “dead in his bed”, The Greyhound went downhill and shut its doors in 1897. The Globe and The Cascade Hotel, the latter established in 1846, have outlasted them all.

While we are waiting for our food, I watch one of the waiting staff delivering a “Sicey’s Super Beef Schnitzel” to a diner in the bar.

ON THE MENU Duo of dips with Turkish bread, $12.50; extra bread, $2; Doo Town bangers and mash, $24; Wallaby fillet $28; Chicken parmigiana, $18 (small); and Greyhound steak with pepper sauce, $30.

It reminds me of my early days in the newsroom when a sports reporter who was built like a whippet but had an appetite like a St Bernard made a bet he could eat five super schnitzels in an hour. In training, he devoured two in 20 minutes so his odds were looking reasonably good.

It was a time when schnitzels as big as your head were all the rage at the Brunswick (pre-gentrification days), the Black Buffalo and, of course, the Cascade Hotel.

Mercury staff laid bets but our usually insatiable hero failed to get across the line.

“I thought he could do it,” recalls his unofficial coach, who was on hand for the test run. “He absolutely wolfed them down. But on the day, he choked.” Not literally, of course. A few years later I attended his wedding. Schnitzel was not on the menu.

We graze on a duo of dips — parmesan and artichoke plus spinach and feta — before our main meals arrive, ordering a second serve of flatbread to mop up every morsel.

My Greyhound eye fillet steak is first out of the main gate, served with a kunanyi-sized portion of chips, a lightly dressed green salad and a generous bowl of pepper sauce. It’s cooked perfectly medium-rare, as ordered.

Doo Town bangers and mash with red wine jus and topped with cherry chilli jam - $24. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

Across the table, my beau is enjoying his pair of venison snags on mashed potato with a moat of red wine jus, cherry chilli jam and steamed broccolini.

A scattering of sweet potato crisps over the top adds a burst of colour and crunch.

The wallaby is also well received, propped atop a stack of grilled sweet potato, capsicum and eggplant, with smashed spuds and onion jam. My ever-helpful sister, having emptied her own plate, turns her attention to mine. Perhaps we share the same genetic weakness for chips dipped in pepper sauce?

As we pay and depart, the Cascade crew remains busy clearing tables and delivering meals. Still serving pub-goers after 170-odd years ... you have to be happy with that.

THE CASCADE HOTEL

22 Cascade Rd

South Hobart

Open for lunch and dinner daily

www.cascadehotel.com.au

6223 6385