Your new favourite

EVERYONE loves a good ol’ fashioned happy hour, and I think I’ve found my new favourite at The Birch in Newtown.

Besides the obligatory drink discounts (in this case, $10 cocktails/wines BTG), what I really like is the $5 snack menu that complements: think potato and burnt shallot hashies, dutch carrot tarte tatins and hand cut Felino salami grissini (there are $3 freshly shucked oysters, too).

Happy hour is available Wednesday to Sunday until the dinner service starts at 6pm.

If you happen to be in the neighbourhood on Wednesdays, the venue runs a $30 duck frites special, which is The Birch’s version of steak night but the beef is replaced with some nice duck.

Value? You bet. Yum? Absolutely.

 

 

 

The team behind the growing Brown Deli empire certainly seems to have the winning formulae, announcing they’ll soon open a third cafe outlet after only having added their Pakington Street imprint less than two years ago.

Also found in the team’s small stable is The Raw on the waterfront (doing really tasty seafood), showing the owners aren’t just a cafe-trick pony.

The bagels and sandwiches have been one of my favourite lunch options for what feels like years now, while the coffee – particularly the iced versions – are always on song.

Let’s hope the next offshoot is in your (or better yet, my) neighbourhood.

Another local favourite on the Geelong cafe scene, Cafe PALAT, has some good and bad, news to share.

Let us start with the good: its Pako space is (finally) offering breakfast!

I really like the Vietnamese-skewed food here, and the cafe plans to continue that theme through its breakfast menu (or, if you’re in dire need of an early morning a bánh mi panini at that hour, those are available too).

It almost goes without saying that the silky cà phê sữa đá (AKA Vietnamese iced coffee) is one of the best in town. The cafe takes bookings too, which helps.

Now to the bad news – and this is gonna hurt for those across the opposite end of town: Cafe PALAT’s Breakwater home will be closing this week after years of happily serving countless bowls of vermicelli noodle soups and salads.

The east’s loss is the west’s gain in this case. But really, both spots are 15 minutes apart – so it’s really not that far to get some of Geelong’s best Vietnamese cuisine.

 

Now I’m not the biggest wholefoods guy, but a place I do really appreciate is the Geelong West franchise of The Source.

Franchise can often be such an ugly word to use – my mind immediately runs to McDonalds or fitness gyms – so let’s use locally owned and committed in this case. (The Source stocks many local ingredients, also).

Anyway, the place is always a hive of activity, boasting over 350 health products like grains, seeds, flours, oils, spices, nuts and dried fruit – lots of the stuff you can’t get in mainstream supermarkets – and is ideal for people wanting to explore/explore their own home cooking in greater depth.

 

Vegan and organic foodstuff heavily feature in this broad range too, as well as low-waste and recyclable-packaged goods (although they encourage bringing your own reuseable containers when shopping).

If you were among the 1,017 guests that attended the Barwon Health Foundation gala ball last week at our new convention centre, you’ll agree that it was a pretty decent first effort from the team there, given it was the venue’s opening large-scale event.

I even couldn’t remember if I’d ever been to a function in Geelong that catered to over a thousand people, but considering the quality of the food across all courses and the timing of service, I actually was quite impressed.

Most minor detail boxes were all ticked too (eg nice stemware, tasteful crockery, comfy-enough seating etc) and the interior of the building looks a million bucks ($449.1 million to be exact).

I really think this place will represent Geelong superbly in future use.

Finally, if you’ve jumped on the soccer bandwagon for the World Cup finals and are in need of a destination to watch the final few matches, your best bet is probably the Sporting Globe if the match starts at 10am or later (which, unfortunately isn’t many from the quarter finals onwards).

So the lounge room couch is likely your next best early-morning option… or drive to Crown in Melbourne if you really need to watch that big game on the big screen?