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Winter isn’t traditionally associated with abundance or fresh surges of energy, particularly in the restaurant business.
But Melbourne venues are blasting their way through to spring by launching new ways to dine, turning crazy ideas into reality (one night a week, anyway) and pushing their menus into unexplored territory.
Wiener schnitzels have come to Westgarth, with Vex Dining transforming into a cosy Austrian pub on Wednesday nights. The team is opening Austrian and German wines that go far beyond riesling, and cooking hearty dishes such as goulash, spaetzle (egg noodles) with pumpkin, and stockbrot: skewers of grilled bread with fresh cheese. They’re calling it Gasthaus am Fube des Hugels (Inn at the Bottom of the Hill), a nod to their Ruckers Hill location.
66-68 High Street, Westgarth, vexdining.com
Bright and breezy Lumen People has been making mornings better since it opened in North Melbourne in February. But now it’s coming after your evenings. White bean dip with pimento oil, and trecce cheese with green olive tapenade have been recently added to aperitivo menu. The additions are from new chef Stephannie Liu, who previously ran the kitchen at low-waste luminary Cornersmith in Sydney. She’s revamped the day menu, too, and a liquor licence means you can have a glass of skin-contact trebbiano with your leek, cheese and guindilla sando.
Shop 2A, 520 Victoria Street, North Melbourne
Across town, fellow day-break venue Via Porta is now playing after dark, too. The easy-to-love Italian dinner menu (available Tuesday to Saturday) ticks many boxes, from rigatoni alla vodka to chicken cacciatore on polenta or 500-gram sirloin steak on the bone. Eggplant arancini and marinated capsicum with stracciatella are among more than a dozen small plates geared to knock-off drinks for those work-from-home days.
677 Whitehorse Road, Mont Albert, viaporta.com.au/viaportaeaterydeli
Enter Via Laundry continues its tour through India’s rich culinary terrain, making the most of winter by embracing the richness of Mughlai cuisine on its latest menu. Dinner opens with duck, chicken and quail bone broth, before spanner crab, pomegranate and caviar add dazzle to butta chat, a corn-based street snack. The high point, though, might be the dry-aged duck, stuffed with chicken, quail and egg, presented in a cashew sauce with roti and pickled baby carrots. This is parindey mussallam, a dish fit for the royal court of the empire – but luckily, you can try it on the current 10-course menu. A new, shorter five-course option is available on select nights, with highlights such as quail egg kebabs.
Nicholson Street, Carlton North, entervialaundry.com.au
It’s possible to get change from $20 at lunchtime if you head to Thai canteen BKK on a weekday. The CBD restaurant has added three $15 dishes to warm you from the inside, including a tom yum noodle salad with pork and chilli and a slurpable, Issan-style chicken noodle soup fragrant with lemongrass, makrut lime and galangal. The deal is available Monday to Friday 11.30am-3pm.
Level 3, 270 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, her.melbourne/bkk
Proving that beer is great friends with more than just chips is a mission of Collingwood craft brewery Molly Rose. Its new bar has an exciting menu to showcase the full range of pairing possibilities, but if you want to jump in feet first, book the chef’s table, a semi-private space situated ringside to the kitchen and available for dinner from Thursday to Saturday. It launched last month with its own five-course menu ($95) featuring tiny ocean trout tarts with guanciale, smoked tomato with mulloway and roe, and bomboloni with beer caramel, among other things.
279-285 Wellington Street, Collingwood, mollyrosebrewing.com
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