Provenance Food and Wine: 288 Smith Street, Collingwood, 8415 0700
My score: 3.5/5
Smith Street reminds me of one of my favourite songs, The World’s Got Everything in It by Tex Perkins and Spencer Jones, a guitar-sodden drawl about the world’s ‘variety without limit’. Smith Street has variety and then some, much of it resistant to urban nicey-nice renewal. The strip includes on-trend and trend-immune restaurants, cafes good and bad, fashion both questionable and questing, and places like Provenance that are just about always open, that aim to please and do a fine job of it.
You don’t walk into Provenance and start wondering who designed the interior. The exposed brick, pressed tin ceiling and glass porte cochere are attractive but the formica tables, piles of old cookbooks and single toilet are a bit share-housey. The aesthetic gels with the fact that late breakfast and early G&T might be served at the same time here, and also with the youth of owner David Hynes who opened the business when he was 22 (he’s just turned 25). But the place is comfortable whether you’re here for espresso, eggs and wi-fi, or later for martinis and munchies. Either way, the enthusiastic spirit of the Provenance crew soon becomes the main feature of a visit. You truly get the feeling that if you’re happy, they’re happy and that’s nice.
Chef Matthew Barnard runs a mostly Mediterranean menu which dashes into Asia here and there – start with olives and edamame, if you like. The restaurant’s name points to a local, seasonal slant and the food is enjoyable. I especially liked the coq au vin blanc, a full-flavoured chicken braise with mushrooms, bacon and creamed potato and the pork belly, its skin properly crisped, the richness cut with pomegranate molasses, and the flesh topped with ‘pork floss’ that slowly melted back to caramel. This floss and the beetroot ‘soil’ on a composed cheese dish (starring creamy, silky Buche d’Affinois) point to minor molecular tendencies.
The eager mood isn’t always backed up by execution – the lambs ribs were a little dry, the aioli was too wet – but overall this is tasty food with a good heart. The drinks list is full of unusual hand-picked wines and spirits that seem designed to spark conversations with the staff. In a street with everything in it, there’s certainly a place for Provenance, an accessible hub for the hospitality experience driven by youth, zest and a keen, sharing spirit.
More Smith Street:
Boire, 92 Smith Street, Collingwood, no phone.
No bookings, no phone, no nonsense, just a daily menu of provincial deliciousness and lovingly chosen French wine.
Melissa, 118 Smith Street, Collingwood, 9417 2643
Hand-rolled filo is the beautiful basis for some of Melbourne’s best spanakopitas and tiropitas.
Cafe Rosamond, Rear 191 Smith Street, Fitzroy, 9419 2270
This little cafe is a cool option by day and, on Thursday nights it’s a showcase for pastry ace Pierre Roelofs and his dessert degustations.
First published in The Age, October 2, 2011
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