Austins to continue food and wine intertwine

Austin’s Wines is back this month with another fantastic restaurant resident who is sure to get locals licking their lips.

This month, the illustrious winemakers are welcoming Geelong Vietnamese extraordinaries Anh Chi Em to their cellar door.

Anh Chi Em specialise in Vietnamese cuisine including rice paper rolls, pho, banh mi, spring rolls and rice bowls.

The Geelong institution grow their fresh produce at their own farm in Lara, source their meats locally, and pride themselves on culminating all the elements of traditional Vietnamese with a unique modern edge.

Austin Wines marketing manager Belinda Austin said the winery couldn’t wait to be hosting the highly respected team.

“We are so excited and feel incredibly lucky to be bringing them out to Austin Wines this month.

“We’ve had a couple of lunches in Highton at their restaurant before and we just love what they do.

“They stock our wines in store, and I just hit them up on Instagram and thought they’d be perfect for what we are trying to achieve here.

“They’ve got a bit of a casual edge about their dining, which we believe is a perfect fit coming into some warmer weather this September.

“Luckily, they were keen to come in and we can’t wait to see them up close.”

Austin Wines began their restaurant residency program at the backend of the pandemic in 2021.

Since then, the Moorabool Valley venue has hosted a series of Victorian producers including Nama Please Tulip and will play host to Drunken Dumplings at the backend of the year.

“We’ve always had our own kitchen but didn’t necessarily want to start a full-time kitchen and food offering,” Mrs Austin said.

“We also didn’t think there was enough chefs out there to hire, so we had to think of a new concept.

“Bringing in local traders to showcase what they do best just seemed like a fantastic idea and it’s taken off from there.

“The success of it has given us no incentive to start doing our own kitchen, aside from still making our delicious cheese platters.

“We just stick to what we know best, which is wine, and we leave the food for our hero producers each month or two.”

Anh Chi Em will be serving lunch from 12 noon-3pm Friday to Sunday all month until October 1.

Austin’s Wines is at 870 Steiglitz Road, Sutherlands Creek.

For more information, head to austinswines.com.au