Good Wine

by

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

by

Parcs – Melbourne, City – Saturday 18 May 2024 – Dinner

Admitting that I’m confused about a tasting menu is not something I would ordinarily like to do. I feel I need to, as Parcs is the kind of place where what you’re eating makes sense, until you try to begin writing about it.

This is a tiny restaurant by CBD standards. I counted 22 chairs if you include the barstools, making for a warm and intimate room. Only a handful of staff is possible in such a small venue, and the concentration makes for excellent service. This is a model I really like.

The floor staff are complimented by the executive chef, Damien Neylon, who delivers around half of your courses. He’s not one to embellish but you can tell the pride and the deep consideration behind what is on your plate. The level of care extends to a wine list that is exemplary.

There is a strong and intentional theme here at Parcs. It’s new and with that comes a high degree of learning, which I believe will only make the menu stronger from this point. It is not perfect, but there are many excellent dishes, and no poor ones. The staff don’t speak about the theme of sustainability a great deal. Perhaps talking too much about sustainability would take away from the excellence in the ingredients and their treatment by the kitchen. I find the balance impressive.

An example of ingenuity comes in the form of beetroot that is treated like gravlax. There’s a familiarity in the snack though the beetroot itself is quite unique. Another highlight is sweet potato that somehow tricks the mind into thinking it is salmon. The crustacean sauce is incredibly delicious, and the accompaniments are novel, but somehow work. Those accompaniments are potato with bonito cured in juice pulp placed on top, in between lying the green leftover pulp that was used (direct from the local juice store), and some fermented potato, honey and garlic bread.

Even with the substantial amount of food there was no way I was leaving any of that potato bread, and we finished the savoury courses with beautifully cooked cockerel (young male chicken). At this stage there was equally no way I was leaving any of the substantial final course in the form of imperfect strawberries and rhubarb. The flavour packed strawberries must come into the kitchen resembling an ugly duckling, before they are marinated, and used to generously cover an oat meringue, with plenty of kefir cream thrown into the mix, along with kombucha scoby, which is the starter for turning sweetened tea into kombucha. There is a genuinely exceptional degree of experimentation here, and it rarely doesn’t deliver.

One dish that didn’t work for me, but was still enjoyable, was the tuna cured in bull kelp. It didn’t fall apart with that tenderness you often experience with high quality tuna, and the diced belly was not as flavoursome as I would expect. What did work for me was the wines we were trying. As if teasing me to try each wine by the glass, they seemed to be one-upping themselves. From a superb Aligote by Dubois Bernard et Fils, to a deeper and softer Chenin by Bobinet, followed by a Gamay by Chateau Cambon which is such an underrated varietal when well made, finishing with a Petit-Roy Pinot Noir from Burgundy. These are unashamedly fine French wines, well sourced by the restaurant, and all in keeping with the sustainability theme.

I feel like I’ve raved about Parcs. I believe it will get even better than the experience Catherine and I enjoyed. It would be great if it was just a little bit bigger for a casual wine and snack, but I think that is not the point. There is meaning and thought here, and the theme doesn’t dull the offering. In fact, the inventiveness feels like it partly relies on the limitations presented, and the intention to be completely seasonal and sustainable.

Parcs
https://parcs.com.au
198 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Phone +61(3)99727015
info@parcs.com.au