In Melbourne, a city full of food and obsessed by coffee, I cook, I eat, I share the good news and the bad. essjay eats

Essjay bites March 6 2013

Well, hello there everyone.

In the midst of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival there’s a bit of news around to share. And whilst the office move has gone well, the search for interesting and affordable food (lets not mention coffee) in Docklands is continuing … slowly. Please let me know your favourites over here.

I ran into Jo Corrigan of The Commoner Restaurant on the tram home tonight and quizzed her about her new kitchen team. Well respected chef Adam Liston (formerly Hare & Grace, T8 in Shanghai and The Melting Pot in Adelaide) now leads the kitchen and Jo told me how happy she is to hear the banter between him and his team about food, food and more food. She and partner Matt will be sitting down tonight with the rest of the staff to sample Adam’s new menu, then tomorrow it goes live. I love The Commoner and am really looking forward to trying the new dishes. If you check his twitter stream you’ll see some pics. (Love a chef who tweets new dishes!)

Speaking of Jo and Matt (@mushroomsanon) – their highly successful and FUN mushroom foraging expeditions are about to kick off for this year, and for the first time they are expanding into NSW and South Australia. Jo showed me a photo of some delicious looking lovelies she and Matt found in NSW recently. Jump on board if you want to join them – if you came along with us last year (and Fringe Food) you’ll know what a great time will be in store.  Contact the restaurant for details and bookings.

And speaking of The Commoner – many moons ago some of us bloggers had a bit of a dinner there. I ran into Cindy and Michael from Where’s the Beef and Adrian from Food Rehab last Saturday when we were asked to judge the baking competition at the Treadlie Bike Fest and we thought it might be time to have another one. Whattya reckon bloggers? Shall we meet up? We can cook ourselves in the wood fired oven or we can get The Commoner to feed us. Leave me a message and lets get rolling.

Rosa Mitchell (formally  at Journal Canteen)has opened her new venture  “Rosa’s Kitchen” in Punch Lane. I dropped passed on the Australia Day long weekend when one of the partners David Mackintosh was there with chef Lucy overseeing a “rip out and restore” job. The pink paint has gone and in it’s place is a cosy 45 seater showcasing Rosa’s delicious family fare. She’s even taken to facebook and twitter to keep us updated on kitchen shenanigans (yes shenanigans – look at those cucumbers!) Lazlo Evenhuis, most recently at The Crimean has joined the team so expect some delicious and interesting wines to go with that Sicilian food.

I’ve been hanging out at Eureka Coffee and farmers markets as usual, and visited Industry Beans (impressive), Bia Hoi pop-up (tasty), tasted chocolate for The Age (tough life), ate fantastic food from French Chef David Toutaine at Brooks and got a head full of ideas at Melbourne Food and Wine Festival events “Theatre of Ideas” and “Chef Jam”. My Dad visited from Queensland which gave me the perfect excuse to eat at Gerald’s Bar a couple of times (just keeps on getting better), Kaprica (pizza to die for), Beatrix and Pope Joan.Oh and I baked and made pickles and strawberry jam too. But more on that later… promise.

Dad loved his visit to Skinner & Hackett so much we had to get some beef and lamb for him to take home with him.

But the really BIG NEWS is that Gerald’s Bar will be opening on Sunday nights from this Sunday March 17.

Happy days folks!

 

 

 

 

 

One thought on “Essjay bites March 6 2013

  • Totally up for a Commoner meet-up! April and May are looking pretty good.

    Comment from: Cindy

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