While the last day in May delivered cold and rain to Melbourne in spades, Haynes&Bruce enjoyed a cosy winter feast a la Stefano de Pieri and The Lincoln Hotel.
The Sunday Lunch and Beer Series sees de Pieri (Stefano’s, The Mildura Brewery) team up with The Lincoln’s Lachlan Cameron create warming dishes to pair with de Pieri’s Mildura Brewery beers.
Lunch began with Mildura Brewery’s Honey Wheat Beer paired with a unique dish: lamb ham from Mildura’s Wintersun Butchery with pickled vegetables and red cabbage. The lightly honeyed flavours of the beer were delicious with the buttery sweetness of the cured meat and the tang of pickled fennel and radish.
The slightly heavier limited edition Block 80 Saison beer was a smooth transition from the previous, standing up well to the sturdy mullet escabeche with pomegranate, pine nuts, grapes, pickled red onion and peppery watercress
The dishes that followed were absolute revelations. Cameron’s homemade pappardelle was complemented with a flavoursome pork sausage, broccoli and a delicate sauce made with braised goat, chilli and garlic. Mildura Brewery’s crisp, bitter pilsner is a clean, fresh malt beer that cut through the richness of the dish.
Next up, the piece de resistance: tender roast pork with crisp crackling and crunchy roast potatoes that put the standard Aussie Sunday roast to shame. This was paired well with the dark roasted malt of the Mallee Bull beer, which was quite chocolatey and robust, but still with a clean and fresh finish, matching nicely with the pork.
Dessert was chocolate bavarois with coffee and chocolate stout, alongside the Brewery’s Choc Hops Chocolate Stout. The creamy chocolate bavarois with the hint of stout, the caramelised toffee syrup and the crisp chocolate crunch of the coffee hazelnut wafer on top was heaven with the deep chocolate and vanilla flavours of the stout.
Sunday Lunch at the Lincoln was the perfect antidote to a cold day. The atmosphere of the charming pub was buzzing and the characteristic warmth of de Pieri permeated every beer and every dish. De Pieri’s Mildura Brewery beers are clean and fresh and easy to drink, their balanced flavours making them the ideal food partner.
The Sunday Lunch and Beer Series at The Lincoln will run once a month throughout winter. To book, contact The Lincoln Hotel at hotellincoln.com.au