The great Australian bar-food revolution
NOWADAYS, being a bar fly doesn’t necessarily paint you as the booze-sodden geezer everyone’s wishing would stumble onto the pavement already.
Plant yourself at the bar at Sydney’s 10 William St. or Melbourne’s The Town Mouse and you’ll be joining a growing number of discerning gastronomes overhauling the concept of dinner out.
Chef Dave Verheul from The Town Mouse restaurant in Melbourne. Source: News Corp Australia
The bar-food revolution has not only changed where we dine within the restaurant, it has completely revamped our eating habits. The chance to soak up the wine with something more culinary in a burgeoning number of drinking establishments has given us the chance to shrug off companions and dine alone, and better than ever. Finally, the ranks of food-lovers don’t have to let lack of company get in the way of a good meal out. Sitting alone at the bar is no longer reserved for the socially destitute.
The bar-food revolution is also driving a move towards smaller portions when the clock strikes night-time. No longer does dinner have to be the main meal of the day. Being sated by a plate of ‘fat bastard’ asparagus with pickled mussels and a glass from the well-chosen roster of wine at Monopole in Potts Point proves we’ve truly shunned the three-course meal traditions of our dining forbears.
Monopole in Potts Point. Source: News Corp Australia
Wood-fired roasted oysters and crispy squid dumplings, as well as the knock-out blood-sausage sanga, are highlights at Ester, the basement parking space converted into an elegant nook in Chippendale, Sydney. Perch at the bar, order the oysters and pair with sake.
Bar dining can be one of the few remaining methods of securing a seat in some of Sydney and Melbourne’s best eating establishments. Plus, it’s becoming a preferred option for those of us who want to eat out without the fuss of let-me-show-you-to-your-table. We can eat with our backs to the restaurants, a theatre of chefs before us. And the food is better than ever.
It’s not just restaurants that are getting in on the action. Traditional drinking joints no longer just appeal to boozehounds looking to furtively drink themselves silly. Those on the hunt for a drink and some nosh will likely find other dedicated gastronomes eating themselves into a stupor at the various deceptively sophisticated gastropubs that have sprung up over the past couple of years.
The humble bar snack in pubs and bars has evolved to include more than a packet of salted nuts. Bloodwood, in Newtown, was one of Sydney’s first small bars to impress with its organic and biodynamic wine list and excellent bar snacks. The chefs say they can’t take the polenta chips with gorgonzola dip off the menu. Also in Newtown, Miss Peaches does Young Henry’s on tap, not to mention housemade tater tots with maple-bacon ketchup, fried chicken cornbread sliders and crawfish pies.
Miss Peaches at the Marlborough Hotel in Newtown. Source: News Corp Australia
In Melbourne, chef Andrew McConnell launched Cumulus Up., a wine bar to the sophisticated Cumulus Inc. establishment below. With its climate-controlled cellar and eclectic list from the Old and New Worlds of wine, we’d be forgiven for dismissing it as a spot for drinks. But chicken hearts with cavolo nero, and duck waffles with foie gras and prune prove otherwise.
As the sun goes down on our dinner-at-the-table habits, we’re eating better and less gluttonously. The change has also invigorated our appreciation of the power of a meal with the best possible company: our own.
Source : NEWS.com.au April 26th 2015
