Ministry of Crab
• The Keys, Preston’s long-awaited nostalgic “leisure centre” – with three bars, 12 bowling lanes and room for 650 punters – finally has an opening date: October 26. And bookings are now open. Get excited.
• I Can’t Stop Thinking About: An unimpeachable, unmissable fried-chicken burger – one of Melbourne’s best. With a star ingredient that has taken 15 years to perfect.
• First Look: One of the world’s best crab restaurants, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Crab, lands in Melbourne – for four weeks only.
• Recipe: House of the Dragon actor Emma D’Arcy is breaking the internet with their love for the “mistake” Negroni – “with prosecco in it”. Here’s how to nail it at home.
• With Supernormal, Stokehouse and Nomad, the Australian Open delivers a grand-slam 2023 dining line-up. It also features fancy Sydney fish’n’chipper Charcoal Fish by pioneering chef Josh Niland.
• Buy coffee, support orangutans, monkeys and tree kangaroos with Zoos Victoria’s new bags of beans.
• Now open: if it’s not gonna be a burger, it has to be the chicken and waffles at Yarra Glen’s new low-key diner. Lulu’s is the latest from the team behind Heartswood (which is across the road), headed by a chef with fine-dining pedigree.
• Coming soon: the co-founder of Australia’s best-ranked bar is opening Amphlett House in Melbourne’s CBD. It’s a slicker-than-your-average taphouse headed for an ’80s-Memphis-inspired laneway hotel.
• Stokehouse’s Pontoon has closed, but something new is coming – just in time for summer.
• First Look: Kariton Sorbetes’s glowing new gelato store brings Filipino flavours and slushie spiders to the CBD. The flagship’s menu is projected onto the curved, sky-blue ceiling.
• “I’m loving not being beholden to one ingredient”: Miss Katie’s Crab Shack drops the crabs – and does a 180. After nine years, it’s now Euro-inspired wine bar Suzi Cheek’s.
• New Hire: Five minutes with Jordan Clavaron, new head chef at Cutler & Co. This French chef – with Michelin pedigree – comes fresh from a stint at Victorian fine diner Cape.
07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023
07 Aug 2023
04 Aug 2023