The Tipo 00 team’s new ‘destination diner’ feels a world away from its office tower digs
A first look at good-looking Harriot, which channels new-wave European bistros and makes magic with overlooked ingredients.
Once you step inside Harriot – the hot new CBD restaurant from the Conferre Group, behind Tipo 00, Osteria Ilaria, Figlia and Grana – there’s little sense of its corporate surrounds. That was intentional.
“The brief, first off ... was for you to come in and not know that you’re in an office building or that you’re on King Street,” says Luke Skidmore, a partner in Conferre Group. “It’s not just for suits ... it’s going to be a destination diner, in a way.”
That said, the street-level restaurant on the corner of King and Collins streets feels like a tonic for the business end of town.
Studio Esteta’s fitout of cafe curtains and rust-coloured banquettes soften the concrete-framed windows and hide the busy street. Chequerboard tiling and walnut timber give the new build a time-worn charm. And clothed tables set the scene for what’s to come.
Harriot, the group’s fifth venue, is its first not to identify as Italian.
“Everyone’s been asking about it: ‘how come?’,” says chef and partner Andreas Papadakis. “But their questions have come with excitement rather than resentment.”
They didn’t set out to open a non-Italian restaurant. Instead, the concept was driven by chef James Kelly, who brings a wealth of experience to his first head-chef role, after years at Lyle’s in London (which closed recently with a Michelin star) as well as Embla.
Harriot’s identity is broadly European, fusing the best parts of the team’s favourite wine bars and neo-bistros in London, France, Italy and Spain – venues that marry classical cooking with modern flourishes while exuding an effortless cool.
Kelly’s offering will look slightly different every week, but stars of his opening menu include a rye tartlet filled with fermented porcini mayonnaise and bluefin tuna; and lamb sweetbreads, cooked sous vide in brown butter and finished in a grenobloise-like sauce with the addition of finger lime.
Pig’s-head terrine is the tip of the iceberg in Kelly’s commitment to whole-animal butchery, one of many uses for the McIvor Farm pigs he sources. “Instead of coming up with dishes and ordering pork, it’s the other way round: having pork in the [cool room] and figuring out how to use it,” he says.
Dark-crusted sourdough baked in the wood-burning oven, and two types of house-made pasta are anchor items. Right now, find gnocchi in swirls of cavolo-nero puree and comte cream with a generous shaving of black truffle, and spanner-crab ravioli with a bisque that uses fermented pumpkin in place of tomato.
Desserts include an airier-than-your-average chocolate tart, lightened with sabayon, and a rhubarb sherbet with burnt vanilla and white chocolate.
Sommelier Justin Howe presides over a burgeoning wine cellar, already with more than 500 bottles, some of which he collected years ago. A handful he’s particularly excited about are made accessible via a list of “feature pours”, including a 2013 Cerbaiona Rosso di Montalcino sangiovese from Tuscany.
A $110 wine pairing is available alongside the $148 tasting menu, often with some exclusive dishes.
Harriot has 70 seats, including a 14-person private dining room.
Lunch Mon-Fri; dinner Mon-Sat
555 Collins Street, Melbourne, harriotmelbourne.com
Tomas Telegramma is a food, drinks and culture writer.