Melbourne urban farm café and restaurant gears up for opening
The Acre Farm & Eatery in Melbourne’s east is gearing up for its opening in December.
Located in the Burwood Brickworks, designer Joost Bakker was enlisted to help turn the shopping centre development’s rooftop into an urban farm, cafe and restaurant space.
A glasshouse will house the café, alongside 15,000 plants across its 450 square metres of vertical gardens. Adjacent to the cafe is a farmhouse-style restaurant with plenty of natural light. Diners will also be able to see all the action in the kitchen which has glass walls.
Urban agricultural land, including a vertical strawberry garden, a chicken coop, established olive and citrus trees and a garden with 12 varieties of tomato, kale, silverbeet, baby carrots and heirloom baby vegetables will surround both dining rooms.
The produce grown in the gardens will be used in the restaurant, backed up by outside supplies from local Victorian growers. Executive chef Brad Simpson said that they will form relationships with farms that operate the same soil-health programs that we will operate on the rooftop.
There will also be a strong focus on minimising food waste and single-use plastics, while the “family-style” menu will be using plenty of secondary cuts of meat such as slow-roasted pork knuckle.
Sheridan Randall, 29th October 2019
