Farm-to-table

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Julie Restaurant – Abbotsford – Friday 8 November 2024 – Dinner

Farm to table dining used to be rare. Now it is increasingly stamping itself as not only attractive, but accessible. You are guaranteed freshness, the environmental impact is markedly lessened, and there is normally a passion that is infectiously shared across the entire restaurant staff.

There is now a farm to table option that is within a very short distance of the Melbourne CBD, and actually backs on to a farm. Abbotsford Convent, and the Collingwood Children’s Farm, just make sense as a venue, though it is never one I had thought about. For those who’ve been to this area you know it feels like going back in time. The heritage buildings, the farm with its bountiful supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, along with friendly animals, a bustling cafe, and a farmer’s market. Lots of events happen here too, including regular markets.

We feel a bit late to the party, as Julie Restaurant opened in September 2023, but better late than never. As we arrive it is a cool early evening for the mid part of Spring, and we note the outdoor tables on the terrace for a future a la carte meal, or a drink, on a warm night. Inside, the white space is quite small, but the high ceiling reaches upward creating an airy space for the dozen or so tables. Many of the tables, including ours, face the opening to the kitchen pass. In that window, chef Julieanne Blum in turn faces the restaurant whilst controlling the quality of the kitchen, and communicating with the terrific floor staff.

I love the feeling you get when a restaurant is going well, and the staff enjoy working there. From the time you enter, through to the farewell, there is a sense of comfort. There’s something clever from the kitchen too with the way the tasting menu works. The menu is on a blackboard showcasing the main dishes for the incredibly reasonable price of $85. Then there are a host of additions depending on your appetite, and tastes. Oysters, beef tongue, zucchini flower, and coral trout are all options on another blackboard to the left.

As well as adding in the beef tongue, and the zucchini flower, we also opt for the buttery potatoes, not because we need them, but because we want them! As we enjoy our excellently executed aperitifs, a house martini for me, and a Campari spritz for Catherine, our obligatory platter of vegetables, preserves, and dip, arrives on the table. This is becoming a clichéd beginning to a farm to table / seasonal restaurant, but we normally enjoy them, and this one is worthwhile. The vegetable fritter served next is packed with oily goodness, and perfectly handled in the fryer to add a different element to the other starters. Housemade sourdough accompanies as a treat in itself.

The wines by the glass are enticing, and there’s good assistance available to choose one when not already choosing the optional wine matching. I’m offered an off-menu Savagnin by Defialy and it is delicious, with great mouthfeel and complexity, showing good fruit, but layered with honeyed notes. Catherine decides on the Garganega by Alla Caster, which is one of a few Italian wines by the glass offered, on a local leaning list. They both go nicely with our mackerel dish, which is a pleasant surprise for Catherine not normally loving mackerel. It is served in a ceviche type style, diced and mixed with asparagus through a buttermilk sauce, with chips used to add some texture.

Our additional entrees come next with charred thinly sliced beef tongue that is superb, and a beautifully presented, and beautiful tasting zucchini flower. The main course is lamb backstrap cooked sous-vide and finished in the oven, with a delicious gravy using the run-off juices, and a long silverbeet that has soaked it in for a full flavour explosion. Buttery Kipfler potatoes are worth the addition, though we were never going to be able to completely finish all of them, and a spread of peas and sugar snaps are wonderful. As a combination this is what comfort food is all about, and the whole meal is just like one of our waitperson’s favourite descriptors, “gorgeous”.

The medium bodied red wine I enjoyed with our lamb was curious enough for me to research following dinner. Made in Alto Adige, Italy, with two grape varieties I’m not familiar with in Schiava and Lagrein, it is great the restaurant is choosing to showcase something so unusual. Had I not already been a fan of Northern Italian wines, perhaps I would have stuck with the safer Grenache. I’ve got used to trusting the intelligence of the sommelier / wine waitperson in these well regarded venues, and normally am better for it.

It was time for dessert and it had been impossible to miss seeing a bunch of good looking concoctions going out in the same glass I had earlier enjoyed my martini from. Here you have a rather savoury leaning dessert with good balance. There’s just enough sweetness in the honey parfait topped with thyme and rhubarb; salt and olive oil show through as key ingredients.

Our experience at Julie Restaurant brought back some interesting memories. It brought us back to when we first tried Atlas Restaurant in South Yarra / Prahran and it was incredibly reasonable as it started life. It brought us back to great experiences further outside of this inner part of Melbourne where you feel you are closer to a farm than city infrastructure. Julie is an anomaly, but a tremendous one, because it is within good reach of many who may not prioritise travelling for such experiences. Looking around tonight there are only happy faces, both on the customers, and the staff, which is the best expression to find at any place.

Julie Restaurant
https://www.julierestaurant.com.au
1-4 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford Convent
info@julierestaurant.com.au
Dinner – Thursday to Saturday; Lunch Saturday and Sunday

O.MY – Beaconsfield, Melbourne – Saturday 29 July 2023 – Dinner
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O.MY – Beaconsfield, Melbourne – Saturday 29 July 2023 – Dinner

Passion is an overwhelming attribute of exceptional people. In the everyday, most people find their passion in their hobbies. Tonight at O.MY it shines through our conversation with wine waiter, and part owner, Chayse Bertoncello, just as it has the past times we have dined here.

Proudly overlooking this spendid dining room, his brother Blayne creates a menu that has always made sense to my tastes, but has been revelatory in its depth of detail, and connection to the O.MY ethos. That ethos is all about sustainabilty and honouring the surrounding area, without any compromise on flavour; only enhancement.

I should emphasise a complete lack of snobbery at this award winning restaurant; the team creates an interaction that is down to earth. When you have passion for what you do, it shows through the experience; on the plate, and in the glass.

Tonight, we are at the new address for the first time, the restaurant having moved close by after a fire. I love the setting of the small dining room, getting a feeling I had years ago at Orana in Adelaide. From our corner near the bar, we are overlooking the chef’s plating bench, and the other tables in the restaurant, on a large blonde wood table that allows us to sit close together, enjoying the space that fine dining should allow. 

Contrasting the light wood, is the darker furnished dining room, with a dark shadow curtain cutting off the main road outside. While we enjoy our cockails, mine a Manhattan nicely mixed by the bar, a flash of colour appears on the table, with the opening dish showcasing a dozen floral ingredients, housed in a comforting spring roll smelling fried pastry, with buttermilk bringing it together.

We are at the beginning of the longer tasting menu. One of the highlights is a dish we are familiar with from a previous experience, with Jerusalem artichokes coming together beautifully, cooked or prepared several ways. It is the only repeat performance, but an almighty one. The flavours exhibited by roasting, and pickling in particular, brought together with a gorgeous puree, is something special.

One of the many dishes I tried for the first time is the rock flathead, served raw, with trout caviar, finger lime, julienne radishes, and a garlic buttermilk sauce. I savoured every single bite. Earlier, tempura like (sourdough culture) vegetables from the farm, including an unusual but tasty melon/cucumber, and pumpkin skin, gave an indication of the technique on display by the kitchen.

With Catherine’s gluten intolerance, one dish that had us planning some piracy in our own kitchen is the cabbage taco, which was one of her stand-outs. Showcasing the variety of the farm, several types of cabbages (brassicas), and leaves combine to form a light and interesting taco, with the charring of the cabbage leaf adding to the familiarity. 

Another serious highlight cleverly brought together cauliflower using several techniques, with a deep chicken jus, making it feel like a traditional roast dinner. Just prior we enjoyed celeriac, cut like rissoni, topped with black truffle in a flavoursome sauce, as the kitchen’s take on risotto.

We were on the home stretch of this inventive menu, with one last savoury course, plus two desserts to come. Locally sourced beef is slow cooked as a ragout, and covered in a delightfully bright green broccoli, with sweet pickled broccoli stalk, and broccoli puree as the middle layer. Combined with the Bindi Pinot Noir from 2022, you have matched juiciness, and soft sweet textures.

Two desserts is exactly what Catherine and I want from any tasting menu. The Meyer lemon number to begin is cute in its presentation, and delicious. The lemon creme fraiche has a balanced sweetness, with the granita providing a refreshing textural contrast.

The only critique of the finale is we could have eaten two! The almost pastry like pumpkin top is crisp, with the toasted meringue providing pillowy perfection, and Kei apple providing balance.

I would say wine service is serious business here, but the seriousness is left behind-the-scenes with the professional and diligent approach, as opposed to any fanfare at the table. Chayse sources locally as far as possible, and normally has a story or two behind the choice of drink for any particular dish. It would be remiss to not mention our other waitperson from the US, is also skilled on the wine matches, and characteristics exhibited by the offerings tonight.

One of the highlight wines tonight, besides the pinot, was the Yarra Valley Salo Chardonnay, which ticks Catherine’s boxes with its depth, balance, and texture. It shows elegance, and complexity, and I had to have a glass of my own having tried Catherine’s. Similarly named, and the same variety, the La Ferme De Sato Chardonnay from Central Otago in New Zealand is a special find too.

The passion is still there for the Bertoncello’s and their team, and I desperately hope it continues because O.MY is a special restaurant in every sense of the word. The clear comfort displayed in the offering is a true indication of talent and dedication, and there’s so much to like about that combination.

O.MY
https://www.omyrestaurant.com.au/
70 Princes Hwy, Beaconsfield
Dinner Thurs – Sun; Lunch Sat and Sun
+61 (3) 97699000
info@omyrestaurant.com.au

Plus – earlier review from 2016