The silly season is upon us! And while you’ve been busy looking for stocking fillers, ordering turkeys online and figuring out what the bejesus to serve your vegetarian guests on Christmas Day, Melbourne’s food and bev scene has been cultivating some exciting new developments…
Meatball and Wine Bar Chapel St
Melbourne’s The Meatball and Wine Bar is expanding its meatball empire southside with a new venue in Chapel Street, Windsor – the fourth restaurant of its kind following venues in Flinders Lane, Richmond and Collingwood.
While the menu will include all the Meatball and Wine Bar classics such as the oversized pork and veal meatball with pan-fried gnocchi on creamy red sauce, the menu will include new delicious options as well as a rotating meatball salad selection. Meatball and Wine Bar Chapel St is due to open December so get excited, southsiders!
Grange Rd Egg Shop
After a two-year break from the food industry, southside café veteran Adam Wilkinson of Dennis the Menace and St Edmond’s fame has returned with a new breakfast joint, Grange Road Egg Shop. From the sharp menu to the beautiful fit-out paying homage to the protein-filled foodstuff via egg-shaped tables and chairs, Egg Shop has been wowing its classy Toorak patronage from day one.
The menu is a cracker: tuck into clean and crisp dishes such as the tea and gin-cured salmon on smoked apple and labne, or something a little more substantial such as the eggs benedict with slow-roasted brisket and pickled red cabbage. At any rate, the café is a sign that things are getting a shake up in the Toorak food scene!
Tinker Northcote
Café industry experts Julien Moussi and Kristy-Lea Deva have done it again, taking their café expertise Northside with new brunch spot Tinker Northcote alongside their venerable partners Ben Argentino and Adam Vocale.
Like many of their associated establishments including Pentael Elsternwick and Temperance Society, Tinker is moving towards a more health-conscious menu with a focus on plant-based-ingredient-laden dishes including the Breakfast Bowl – cashew pesto quinoa, avocado, kale, cherry tomatoes, haloumi, yoghurt a poached egg and pita chips; and the Mango and Saffron Panna Cotta with vanilla, almond and cranberry granola with strawberries, passionfruit, raspberry and coconut. With a stunning fit out in tonal shades of opaline green and salmon, this bright little café is perfect for the days you feel you need to treat your body like a temple.
Good Heavens
After transforming the former Tuscan Bar in Bourke Street into a two-storey barbecue joint much to the delight of Melbourne’s city-dwelling food enthusiasts, Fancy Hank’s has opened its new rooftop bar, Good Heavens.
Unlike anything the FH team has done before, Good Heavens boasts 80s-inspired cocktails (think blue curacao and mini umbrellas) and barbecue snacks such as spicy chicken ribs, chilli nachos and a smoked lamb neck grilled cheese. YURGHM.
Hopscotch Melbourne
New urban beer bar Hopscotch has graced Southbank’s riverside promenade with its presence just in time for summer. With 30 different beers on tap, the downbeat gathering place has a beer for every occasion, with an exclusive brew on rotation every month at the establishment.
Beer aside, there are plenty of other libations on offer to wet your whistle including DIY cocktail kits, classic cocktails on tap and spiked slushies. In terms of food, HOPSCOTCH is all about top quality, fast snacks that you can eat while balancing your drink in the other hand. Head chef Adam Baughan’s menu boasts street food with punchy flavours including Beer Can Chicken, The Reuben sandwich and the “Bearded Beef Lover” brewer board. There’s also a Nitro Ice-cream bar on site and a breakfast offering on weekends that includes Lemon Meringue Pie waffles! What’s not to love?