Local support in one of its purest forms

BY CAM O’KEEFE

If I worked in the CBD, this would become a lunchtime staple.

On a friend’s advice, I went last week for a quick lunch at the Davidson Restaurant, which forms part of The Gordon’s cooking and hospitality school. For those not aware, this establishment has been a training ground for many of the best hospitality people our city (and indeed state/country) has produced. Now, I’m not here to preach about the reasons why we all should be supporting a place like this (at least, not in this week’s column anyway) but visiting a venue that provides local student chefs/waiters a real-life platform to test their skills in a proper restaurant setting, is a bit of a no brainer for me, particularly when you can get a two- or three-course lunch ($40/$50 respectively) of this quality. Bargain? Absolutely. Premium ingredients? Of course. Helping nurture our local hospitality talent into the future? You betcha. Remember, it’s not just a group of young students having a crack under pressure: they’re supported by a team of senior teachers – most of who are largely decorated chefs in their own right – to execute and send these dishes for our lunchtime pleasure. Make sure you let them know if you’re on a time limit (if you are) as that little bit of extra service pressure never goes astray.

Events for Tastes of Greater Geelong are slowly starting to fill, with a couple of keynote dates nearing capacity. Highlights I’ve be interested in are 18th Amendment Bar’s gin dinner at Tulip, Adrian Richardson’s Fire, Field & Fork event at Maestro, and Nornie Bero’s Cooking on Country workshop: a hands-on educational/cooking session which focuses on regenerative farming and harvesting organically. There’ll also be a free Tastes Winter Festival event in Johnstone Park on June 20 to help kick off the month-long program: expect mulled wine and toasted marshmallows as you walk amongst a sea of curated live music, light art projection and roving performers.

On the beer front, I really enjoyed a new(ish) beer from local favourite Bells Beach Brewery recently, which I picked up from Blackhearts & Sparrows (which still has one of the best craft beer selections in Geelong). Tidal Shift 17 All The Hops IPA delivers precisely what you’d think it should: hops, hops and then some more hops. It blends eight different varieties, in fact, exploring a more experimental side perhaps than what the brewery has done in the past with their IPA single batches. It’s super aromatic, but bitter enough on the finish not to overwhelm your the palate with too many course, tropical “fruity” flavours. Head to their outlets in Geelong (Little Malop) or Torquay (Baines Cres) if you want to try it on tap, which I imagine will only be available for a limited time. (warning: expect hops).

A quick lunch before the football a couple of weeks back lead me to the Asian/Robata-grilled themed Sumi, a place I had almost long forgotten about. I must add, that wasn’t due to previous experiences I’d had there or its quality, but rather its tiny size and the lack my brain has to remind me about how quaint the place it. On this visit I was reminded though of some of the dishes the place does best: scallops and vermicelli; whole crispy shallot crusted baby snapper; proper pork belly bao buns (the list goes on). My biggest recap of why this place is still worth visiting was realised after tasting through the skewer menu again. Squid, chilli miso, squid ink sauce (seriously yum). Chicken wing stuffed with prawn and mushroom, sansho pepper, yuzu mayo (double-seriously yum). Although it’s the small, charcoal Robata grill that brings these skewers to life, the chefs in the tiny (and I mean tiny) kitchen are clearly trained with the best yakitori skills going round.

Lastly, one of the more controversial suburban hospitality projects in recent years, the conversion of Retreat Road’s former post office into a wine bar/eatery has finally opened. Although backed by the might of local developer The Hamilton Group, Newtown locals were only ever going to go down swinging, with numerous planning adjustments made to its original design, times and occupancy numbers throughout its construction journey. Countless objections and a VCAT hearing later, the cream white doors are now open and the serious fit-out is as you’d expected from a developer this calibre.

Pertinently named The Retreat, it’s part bar/part café that spreads its opening times across the full week, blending a mixture of days with nights to cater to the lunch-loving/wine-loving demographic of Newtown and surroundings. The addition of a cute courtyard area too should see the space is given its fair amount of workout in the warmer months. Given the venue is supposedly only licenced for a mere 50 guests, the menu is huge: you can expect everything from dry aged fish to grilled Morton Bay bugs, charcuterie to 600g steaks. I guess the obvious question remains: will the same locals who halted its early vision still support it?