Featuring: James Wine Bar, Bishop Sessa, Fable Dinning Room…
CHEF Paul Cooper has returned home to Victoria and bought Bianchet Winery in the Yarra Valley, operating two venues within the space, to accommodate casual and more formal dining rooms.
Cooper, who moved to Sydney in 2012 to open Bishop Sessa in Surry Hills returned home to Melbourne in February 2018.
The chef and his young family settled on the Yarra Valley, specifically Bianchet – which has some of the oldest vines in the Yarra Valley – and while, Cooper won’t be making wine (just yet), he has started to renovate and enhance the building, built in 1993, opening a pizzeria on one side of the venue and Fable Dining Room on the other.
“The casual pizzeria is aimed at the locals, and Fable is a dedicated dining spot; this gives us a couple of different ways to appeal to a wider audience,” says Cooper.
Cooper has thrown much of his focus into Fable. The 30-seater offers an eight-course degustation menu built around a changing theme – hence the dining room’s name – and it moves with the seasons. His plan is for Fable to become a destination dining experience for the Yarra Valley with dishes including spice-crusted pork, almond, corn, beetroot and pork crackling and wood-grilled barramundi with lentils, potato dauphine, mussels, lemon and vanilla sauce. For the pizzeria, he has refurbished a wood-fired oven with a simple menu of pizzas – four rosso, four bianco – antipasti, dips and charcuterie for family-style dining. There is a private dining room opened in April and Cooper has established a kitchen garden already loaded with seasonal produce, and he has also begun to landscape the larger gardens with native Australian plants. 187 Victoria Rd, Chirnside Park; phone 0422 617 522.
Chef Domenico De Marco opened Giro d’Italia on Rathdowne St, Carlton North, in early 2019 and has been embraced by the local community.
The 40-seater venue, which was formerly 38 Chairs and for a long time Paragon Cafe, is a buzz of regional Italian food with one dish from each region on the menu.
Born in Bologna, Italy, Domenico started working in kitchens when he was 13. He arrived in Australia in 2009 to travel and ended up staying, initially working in Sydney. He moved to Melbourne and opened his first restaurant, l’Altro Mondo in Albert Park in 2013 before moving to Rathdowne St, Carlton North.
The menu at Giro d’Italia highlights the diversity of regional Italy. De Marco has designed his menu to bring in dishes from all over his homeland. Expect arancini (Sicily) or calamari fritti, from Marche, or spaghetti alla scoglio, from Campania, and the wine list is built around Italian and Australian wines.
Domenico’s passion for his restaurant is palpable. “To make my life have a sense, I need to run a restaurant. I say that from my heart, Giro d’Italia is not just my job it’s my dream, it’s my life,” he says.
The dining room is simple and welcoming. Warm wooden panels dress the walls, bentwood chairs and modern lighting are designed to enhance De Marco’s relaxed and enthusiastic nature. De Marco watches the floor and kitchen, bringing out dishes, sharing stories behind the menu and welcoming his customers. 655 Rathdowne St, North Carlton; phone 1 300 398 707.
The owners of Wynyard Cafe in South Melbourne saw an opportunity where others would have seen an empty space. The laneway cafe had been opened for four years when a “For Lease” sign was plastered on an adjoining shop facing the main drag, Clarendon St.
They took it on and after few months of fitting it out and making a couple of very large holes between two separate addresses to make doorways between, James was born. It’s wine bar, diner and “all-day everyday” according to co-owners, couple Kirbie Tate and Dominic Miller.
While Wynyard satisfies the good-coffee-and-solid-brunch market of inner-city South Melbourne, James offers a broader menu into lunch, dinner and supper – with a strong Japanese influence – togarashi corn sits alongside crystal clear dashi broth and meaty eggplant tempura. And a contemporary edge is added in dishes like burrata with flatbread, spring onion, ginger – a decadent swipe at bread and cheese that’s comforting and sassy in equal parts. A buttery beef rib, sticky with teriyaki is a stand-out in the main courses made more comforting with a side of soba noodles with nashi, pickled mushrooms and wakame.
The prices are reasonable, the service intelligent and the wine list is a treasure. It’s inspired by the other kids, literally, on the South Melbourne block – their neighbours are Prince Wine Store and Cloud Wines – and they work with guest sommeliers who are in some way connected to the area to collaborate on the wine list. Recently, it was Corey Morris (ex Bellota Wine Bar) who put together a small but well-considered list with all of the wines available to take-home from one of their two neighbours. This is definitely a stayer in the South Melbourne landscape. 323 Clarendon St, South Melbourne; phone (03) 9690 9285.