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Albert St Food and Wine: 382 Sydney Road (corner Albert Street), Brunswick, 8354 6600
My score: 3.5/5
When a restaurant is open all day it can be hard to create a sense of rhythm and occasion. Breakfast rolls into coffee morphs into lunch seeps into arvo teatime bleeds into beer o’clock fenderbends into dinner. It takes a nimble game plan to manage the transitions and transmutations. The Albert Street team nails it: the handsome Victorian bank building has myriad moods and zones, including a courtyard and a casual table in the produce store which looks like a particularly friendly hangout: it’s nice to sup amongst fancy cheese, jam and wine. The menu from chef Philippa Sibley is a celebratory collection of full-flavoured Frenchy-Italian food.
I arrived for dinner as the last high chairs were being stowed and pre-dinner drinkers were wobbling into blurred sunsets. The please-all-comers menu includes charcuterie (from a handsome cabinet), wine-friendly nibbles (delicious medium-rare beef skewers on silky, smoky eggplant), pizzas (a fabulous pissaladiere with jammy onions and blistered crust), a short grill menu (I love the quail with sharp, herby Bois Boudran sauce), pasta dishes (prawn spaghettini with charred corn) and proper mains. Of course, sharing is encouraged. My meal’s only let-down was the fritto misto seafood basket: the flathead, prawn, fennel and asparagus became a little indistinct in their tempura crust. Only a zucchini flower stuffed with crab mousse had the fire-power to cut through. Perhaps it was ordering error, but I did feel rather basted in oil by the end of the savoury courses. I’m no fat-phobe but an oversupply leaves me at risk of forgoing dessert. That would be disastrous here.
Sibley has spent much of her career being feted for her amazing pastry skills. Here she forgoes extravaganzas for classics. We had a plum frangipane tart so marvellous that I began wondering pseudo-scientifically about the magical properties of fat, sugar, eggs and starch before sinking into a glorious cake daze. The tira misu is a studied but respectful deconstruction in three pots (layered cake, milk sorbet, espresso shot).
The waiters slip from easy aplomb to articulate though I found wine service of the ‘it’s really nice’ school of not-much-help. Perhaps that’s due to the fact that Albert Street opened and got immediately slammed in high summer. As it builds and settles, there will be tastings, the foodstore will include more house-made produce and, no doubt, the waiters will offer more adjectives with the wine.
More foodstore restaurants:
Oasis Bakery, 993 North Road, Murrumbeena, 9570 1122
Fill up a trolley with grains, oils, spices, nuts and pastries, then settle in the cafeteria for fresh, healthy Middle Eastern breakfasts and lunches.
Richmond Hill Cafe & Larder, 48-50 Bridge Road, Richmond, 9421 2808
For my money, the cheese room here is as exciting as a cave stacked with pirates’ treasure. Breakfasts and lunches are swellegant too.
Ludo Food Store, 5 Waltham Street, Sandringham, 9598 5488
Ludo is popular for morning pop-ins, light lunches and for snaring supplies or pre-made meals for dinner.
First published in The Age, March 11, 2012
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