The world adores matt hayward

I thought all was lost when Cafe Zen changed hands on Chapel St. They used to have the best hollandaise sauce (with eggs Atlantic) ever. That place went really down hill service wise any way. But a few doors up down the Windsor end of Chapel St, I found my new thing: 80 Spaces.

Inside the decor is as arty and minimal as the name suggests. Choose something to eat from the blackboard and park yourself on a bench or table and watch a weekend breakfast slowly morph into a lunchtime beer! Food wise, it’s quick and simple. No big kitchens or even rendered walls to flaw you. Their baked beans are home made and nothing short on sensational. They have a bunch of open toasted sandwiches too. I’ve tried the salmon and dill toasty thing and it was sublime. Coffee is half decent too.

Not completely sure but I don’t think they make fresh juice and they don’t have any wireless internet, which is handy when you get bored of your skull working at home. Minor quibbles in an otherwise awesome place. So if you get bored of Orange and other places, check it out.

A tad pretentious, but somehow vital is the new SOS. A bit on the painful side of avant garde, this restaurant is brand spankers new. Despite being above a common as muck food court in Melbourne Central (cnr of Spencer St and La Trobe Sts), it’s so fancy, you’re lucky if you can find the door - literally. Thank god the food is good.

We were walking through the thoroughfare trying to find the door, when people started walking out! And there was the door, camoflagued into the wall. A little bit ‘Get Smart’ without talking about the bizarro toilets. It’s beyond pretentious, it really is.

Soon enough, it becomes apparent that this is the sister restaurant of Taxi. So not only have they taken all their ‘learnings’ from Taxi, but all the staff too. We joked that the staff must’ve been working double shifts between the restaurants. A bit of success has spawned a risky little eco friendly offering.

Then there’s the staff, who are expressionless poster children for the Prozac generation. If they smiled it would’ve killed them.

Finally the food. Absolutely fantastic. The wank factor is there in abundance, although when food’s this good, it’s forgivable. For an entree, we have Northern Territory mud crab with spagetti and a pestoey thing of wild thistle. Sounds atrocious, but bloody hell it was good. Narcotic good. Everything is vegetarian or seafood with Italian influences. My main was a Gnocci based dish that was fairly tasty, although incomporable to the entree. French goat’s cheese for desert as well. The perfect end.

The wine list looks virtually identical (to what I can remember) of Taxi’s. Not bad.

This restaurant could very well nearly be a 5 out of 5, if it wasn’t so wanky. This restaurant is a bio diesel Saab convertible with a Greenpeace sticker. Hippy meets yuppie in a trainwreck of khakis, eco sustainable fish and Country Road suits. It’s only barely pallatable. But like any good bottle of wine, it needs time to breathe, so you and it can adjust to each other. Then it comes good.

Fantastic food and it can only get better.

A few weeks back the snow was pretty bad in Victoria. So we decided to drive up to Bright. A town about 3.5 hours out of Melbourne nestled between the snowfields, the King Valley gourmet region and Glenrowan.

The theory was that if the snow picked up, then we wouldn’t waste money going skiing. But if not, at least we were in town and there was plenty to do. As it turned out, we had a few cold days, but the weather was absolutely beatiful - for spring! Fantastic holidaying weather nonetheless.

Some highlights were staying at the Buckland Resort. These 4 self contained studio apartments have everything from an espresso machine to 3 choices of pillows, LCD TV you name it! It was pretty expensive (approx $200 a night per 3 nights) but exceptionally good value. In many ways, these apartments are better than mine! It’s only about 5km out of Bright town, with some exceptional views. So I really can’t recommend this place highly enough.

Restaurant wise, there are two, two hat highlights. Simones of Bright is brilliant. It’s a converted house so it has great ambience and reflects all the great Italian heritiage of the area. Venison mains (venison is big in these parts!) were quite simply unforgetable and their gnoccino (or just plain gnocci) was without doubt the best i’ll ever taste. Not cheap but reasonable. It’s a feed well worth staying in Bright for.

Next we ate at the Villa Gusto resort. Now this is la dolce vita! This place is a completely private Italian villa resort and they go out of their way to make the experience special. If it’s not the Sangiovese library (about 40 different domestic and Italian varieties available) the four course meals, the villa ambience of cosy open fires and second to none service make it all worth while. If I had to choose between the two, Simones is better, but the Villa is the shiznit for a romantic night.

Cafe wise in Bright there is at least one awesome gourmet cafe with a great selection of local gourmet products and wines to buy, plus friggin’ awesome coffee. Definitely not what you’d expect in these parts, and a great epicurean surprise!

We spent a whole day in Milawa, where seemingly even bird crumbs are gourmet. Everything in this tiny two bit down tastes better than if god cooked it. The mustard shop and cheese factory are brilliant. Just so much to try it’s unbelievable. The Milawa Brown Brothers’ winery has at least 40 red, white and fortified varieites to taste, so be warned! Several of which you can’t get anywhere but the cellar door. So bring an esky!

There are some other wineries worth checking out too. Gapstead has an extensive list for tasting. The Petit Manseng is the best buy here. It’s a wine that would go perfectly with Vietnamese rice paper rolls. The pick of the area would have to be the Politini Sangiovese though. It’s everything you like about a Shiraz, in a Sangiovese! Sangiovese really will be the next black and the King Valley are leading the way.

There is an awful lot of varietals around that are just plain Italian (Marzemino, Barbera, Nebiolo and and obtuse though. Bad Wineries? Well Michelini did nothing for us. Try with caution.

Anyway, the country doesn’t have to be meat and 3 veg. Bright, the King Valley and Milawa have some fantastic food and wine going on and make for a fantastic stay all year around. Snow or no show, give it a crack! I for one can’t wait to go back.

Been here a few times now. First time the service was reasonable, for the price paid. But the second time it was well below average. They had the silver service where staff come and pour your tea and top up your wine. Unfortunately on a Wednesday night, they were adamant about taking the tea and wine from the table, but not so demanding on actually making the effort to top it up! This was pretty dissapointing.

Chinese lovers will be glad to know that there’s plenty of dishes on offer, great for sharing (geez a lazy Suzan on the table would be good!) and the duck crepes for entree are unbelievably good. Other dishes are decent but not stand out. David’s makes a great dinner venue for 4-6 people, particularly given that it’s so close to the Jam Factory.

We were also treated to an Arundel Estate Shiraz from Sunbury which I thank them for, because it was Shiraz find of the century. Wine list overall ain’t so bad, nor is the decorum. Biggest problem here is that service. It just plain sucked.

This place gets 3 out of 5. Give it a miss unless you’re in the area.

Ages ago on the Eat It program on RRR radio, they talked about some guy called Cameron doing a wild mushroom hunt by the coast. It’s $45 to basically fossick around roads in Red Hill, looking for edible wild mushrooms. Sounds like a rort but when you match it up to the T’Gallant winery and get a coffee and a nosh up afterwards it was pretty cool.

Firstly I should be honest though. I think I didn’t learn a huge great deal. You also can’t take your mushrooms home because even though this guy Cameron (who also sells wild mushies at the Queen Victoria Markets) is a bona fide boffin,  the risk of accidentally grabbing something wildly toxic is just too great. Infact only about 5% of the mushrooms sighted were actually edible. You certainly do learn a bit about mushrooms that can kill you though. So in hindsight, you don’t come out of the hunt with a PhD in mushrooms, but it’s fun and interesting enough to make you want to go and cook something.

Don’t bother booking lunch at the T’Gallant restaurant afterwards. Because when you get back to the vineyard, they will fill you up with mushroom pizza, very hot mushroom soup and a glass of Red Hill’s most lush pinot noir. It’s meant to be nibbles, but no one leaves hungry! They say that they will cook up your mushies when you get back. But meh they don’t and they probably wouldn’t have time to inspect and prepare them anyway.

Back at the winery there’s also ample tastings of the wineries soft reds, moscatos, pinot grigios and chardies. Frankly though, they looked very overpriced for cellar door prices.  It all works well though, after all this is Red Hill, the Toorak of the Bay and frankly I don’t think the locals who were settling in for a quiet bottle were phased, judging by the new Porsches, an Aston Martin DB7 and a Bentley Continental coupe that arrived in the car park when we finished the hunt! It’s all very chic!

If you choose to do this thing, it should only be on for autumn and you’ll need to wear your sturdiest shoes and warmest clothes you’re usually too cool to wear. And don’t worry about looking cool, that is until you get to the winery.

N.B. Red Hill is about 70 minutes drive from Melbourne CBD and very close to Arthur’s Seat and Phillip Island etc., so yeah, it’s worth the trip.

Links
Mushrooms in May Flyer
T’Gallant Winery

What to say about Lower House/Upper House? It’s tres chic Melbourne dining for the CBDophile. All the typical touches exist, the wine FOLDER (not list) yet cheeky touches like the daily menu served on cardboard cut out of wine boxes. How’s the food? Well good but typically on par. But the wine tasting! Well sir, so long as you’ve come on a Monday night after work, you’re in the right place.

"Ben Know’s Wine" is Ben Edwards sharing his knowledge and plonk for those with a keen ear and nose.  Being quite the sommelier (president of the Austrlalian Association thereof infact), each week you’re assured of tasting something very special. I wen’t tonight (15/05/06) and they featured the Blanck collection of wines from Alsace (pronounced Al-sass) France.

Also in tow was Fred form Blank wines and they featured some fine aromatics: Pinot Gris, Gurwutztraminer, Rhieslings and a Pinot Blanc. All came with tasting notes and expert winemaker commentary as they gracefully make their way around the tables. It has to be said that the last two aromatics were Grand Cru and Lieux Dits (designations of France’s most prestigious winemaking areas).

If nothing else, the night really taught you about the essence of good aromatic wines. So next time you’re drinking a dinkum Aussie Pinot Gris, or even a French one, you now have a respectable benchmark on which to judge it. Because chances are, you won’t often come across wine as great as what Ben is privvy to. Thank god he’s willing to share in the experience.

Suffice it to say, this is for the wine lover interested in the journey and not the destination. Every week apparently, there’s something different and new on offer. Lower House would hold about 70 people for tasting so best to get there at 5.30 when the festivities begin. After your tasting, you can select dinner from the regular menu, or a charcuterie platter, or make your jolly way home. Ben Knows Wine is on indefinitely, but it’s definitely not to be missed.

For more info, have a look at this Fed Square web page.

Panama really epitomises the unexpected. I never would’ve dreampt that there was enough space left in Collingwood, let alone on the 3rd floor with such a view as this place. Collingwood has this amazing ability to do that though. On top of a Latin dance club, you keep climbing the stairs to what’s labelled as a fire door and there’s Panama Eating House.

In what is surely one of Melbourne’s most eclectic restaurants, there’s boundless open space filled with china cabinets, a bar, full sized pool table, couches everything for every whim. Unlike the chintzy red vynil and velvet cigar room downstairs, with the token Che Guevara motif on the brick wall, Panama is as opulent as cool gets. With great big windows overlooking the city, even the council flats look great at night! Somehow this place really reconciles the urban trashiness with the city glamour queens in bohemian harmony.

For now, Panama seems to be making a name as a bar, because there’s only a few tables and the food’s relatively inexpensive. I could see a main over $20, the wine list equally modest. Unlike the prices, the food could be better. A room this good deserves something more remarkable. Ohe thing they do have down pat is the service, which can’t be faulted. Absolutely top notch!

My gf had a coq au vin which was a little dry with underdone vegetables. Nothing too remarkable. Entrees were slightly better with some WA sardines served with a chick pea salad. Unfortunately though, especially compared to Wabi Sabi Salon down the road, nothing remarkable. I can’t remember what I had for mains. Yes it was that memorable! Unlike the view, not quite the equilibrium we were looking for.

When they get the food and wine right, Panama will really be something special. But you have to start somewher.

Mini is in the shadow of Federation Square. And also very much in the shadow of Yu, the brilliant and authentic Japanese noodle restaurant it shares a lane way with. That’s pretty stiff competition in anyone’s book. For those that came in late, Yu is a real revelation in Japanese and style. But let’s forget that upstart.

Let’s not forget though that in walking distance is Chocolate Buddha, Movidas, Circa and god only knows what other iconic restaurants. Mini blurs the line between after 5 CBD bar and classy restaurant. There’s both a bar menu and an a la carte menu. An extensive wine list which highlights organic wine. My choice was a lovely Greek Cab Sauvignon. The missus had a beatiful French Chardonnay.

For entree we had a lentil soup with sheep’s fetta and some scallops in butter and coriander. Both equally tasty and worthwhile. Both very Greek inspired dishes beyond the standard souvlaki and backlava, with modern touches.

The meals themselves were heartier than expected but a bit overpriced. I had a hardly extravagent (or remarkable) Greek fetuccini in a tomato and cheese sauce. A great vegetarian meal, but a stretch at $23 odd. $35 was about the average price for a meat dish.

Gorgeous homemade turkish bread and oil is served and it was almost better than the meal! And although they charged for bread, it kept coming! The staff don’t mind talking about their treasured wine and are extremely knowledgable.

While it’s pretty good, this is more a Friday come 5 bar than a top brass restaurant. And while it deserves its 15 minutes in the limelight, except for the wine list it won’t remain remarkable.

3.75 out of 5 stars. Just not special enough!

If you know Toorak road, you’ll know Francoise near the corner of Toorak and Punt Road. Right next door to French Fantasies. Both these places just don’t do it for me. They’re either too snobby or the staff (in French Fantasies) just don’t care less. De La Terre is different.

From the moment you walk in you realise that they really care about their ingredients. All their rabbit, lamb etc was from the choiciest local regions, carefully sourced. Likewise the wine. Nothing pimped by sales reps here. Just carefully chosen Heathcote Shiraz and just the right French wines and Champagnes.

Rest assured, if you like the personal touch, this place wont dissapoint. It’s not incredibly expensive but assuringly not cheap. The staff will hapilly take any alteration to the menu and are extremely accomodating. What they do, they do very, very well. There’s an emphasis on game meat all cooked the Chef’s own way. So in a sense it’s not like any other French restaurant i’ve been to - and i’ve been to a few!

4.5 out of 5. Can only improve with further visits :).

For those of you who know your wine, you will know that Tahbilk has some of the best vines in Australia. Their range toppers go back to 1860 and their Marsanne vines are probably some of the finest in Oz.

If you give the old Liqourland a cursory glance over the wine shelves every now and then, you will know their standard stuff well. Their Marsanne, Shiraz and Cav Sauv. What you should know is that this is literally the tip of the iceberg. Tahbilk are a family concern and seem far more concerned with the cellar door than selling out to the retail chains. They must have around 30 wines for tasting at the door.

Highlights
Of what was on offer, we must’ve tasted about 15. Their 1990 Shiraz/Malbec is sublime and quite reasonably priced (around $30). Malbec by itself is a bit so so, being a very light red (7% alcohol and lacking tannin) but combine the two and you’re so in business!

New to their range is their Sparkling Mousanne. It’s a bit yeasty, being their first vintage, but this is sure to become a classic. Quite simply there’s nothing to compare it to. It’s very different, but if you like your dry whites, it’s worth the drive alone.

New Sparklings
Also the new Tahbilk Sparkling Shiraz is remarkable. For sparkling lovers, this is not quite so intense with the fairy floss flavours of a freshly cracked bottle. It has all the pluminess of the non sparkling but is perfectly blended. Leagues apart from other Aussie sparkings which polarise wine lovers at the best of times.

Huge Variety
Some you will never see on the shelf are their [reds] Sangiovese, 1860 Old Vines Shiraz, Cabernet Rose [whites] Roussane, Verdelho, Viognier, Sauv Blanc and a few fortifieds. Arguable the biggest non-corporate, estate grown range of wines offered from a single winery in Australia. And to boot Heathcote, full of great cool climate Shiraz is just down the road.

The Restaurant
The cafe/restaurant just a short walk from the cellar door is absolutely picturesque. If you have some rellos coming from overseas and want to show them something Oz yet beautiful, drive straight from the airport here. Both times i’ve been there, the food on offer was baguettes, gourmet pastries etc. but not to their discredit. They were of the best quality the region has to offer. Living proof that there’s pies and there P I E S.

The Chateau buildings around the place are worth a look too for history boffins. It’s also by the Nagambie lakes, very pretty and there’s the unique (but crappy wine) Michelton winery down the road. It’s roughly a 90 minute drive from Melbourne central.

Walking around Tabhilk, you don’t see any of the hyper industry that you do around Penfolds, Zilzie, Lindermans and Jacobs Creek. No 20 story silos or ominous looking shit that belongs mor on an oil refinery than a winery. It may not be organic but it’s smaller scale and honest and that’s what counts

So quit buying your wine from a rip off, surface scratching supermarket chains and get to the source. Go to the winery, and make a day of it. Buy yourself a case of good estate grown Victorian wine and get into it! It’s cheaper and it’s a lot more fun when you see where it comes from.
http://www.tahbilk.com.au/