Eat, stay, play: An insider's guide to Australia's best food precincts
Leigh Street in Adelaide may look all flannel and beards, but they do a fine job with beans
Henry Jones Art Hotel is a cool base from which to explore Hobart
A SHORT trip interstate can be hard going for the food-lover: you want to do it all, but there's so little time. What you need is a capital city heat map, something that will deliver maximum food and wine excitement for minimal reconnaissance effort. And here it is, our guide to some of the newer food precincts, where everything is within easy walking distance.
MELBOURNE, Fitzroy
Stay: Brooklyn Arts Hotel
This is the bohemian boutique hotel Fitzroy deserves, and the Victorian-era mansion-ette has become a home-from-home for a quirky bunch of regulars. The position is outstanding.
Breakfast/coffee: De Clieu
An outlet for one of Melbourne's best roasteries, De Clieu's corner position makes it absolutely perfect for people-watching. Or newspaper reading. And, yes, the coffee is superb.
Lunch: Builders Arms
More bistro than boozer, The Arms keeps its public bar unsullied by gentrification, but the dining room sees some real style, as you'd expect from an Andrew McConnell business. Unpretentious and great value.
Drinks: Everleigh
Simply one of the best cocktail bars in town, this is a place to brief the barman and let him come up with the goods. Drinking at a gastronomic level.
Dinner: St Crispin
Rage dining room of 2013, chef Joe Grbac and partner Scott Pickett have put the fun back into classic food. A delight, and a real chef's restaurant, too. Great service staff.
Next-day breakfast: Proud Mary
Wanna talk coffee? Think you're serious about beans? Proud Mary has more grinding and coffee-making equipment than the rest of the suburb combined. Their coffee values extend to the food, which is simple cafe food done to a high level.
Lunch: Hell of the North (Saturdays and Sundays)
The food is French bistro, redefined for a new generation; the wine reason enough to visit. If you think "fun French" is an oxymoron, you haven't been here.
Dinner: Lee Ho Fook
Melbourne Chinese food gets a shot in the arm here from a talented young Sydneysider, Victor Liong. This is not fusion food; it is simply pure, light, modern and delicious.
SYDNEY, Circular Quay
Stay: Pullman Quay Grand
It might not be the grooviest hotel in town, but the location is unbeatable. Stay on the harbour side; you could while away a morning just watching the action on the water.
Breakfast: In your room. See above, and add in superior room-service food. You even get Pepe Saya butter with your (hot, sourdough) toast.
Coffee: Cabrito Coffee Traders
One of a clutch of food-and-drink hotspots breathing new life into Bulletin Place, Cabrito has been standing-room only since the day it opened. Taste the coffee and you can see why. A laneway table is icing on the lamington, so to speak.
Lunch: Mr Wong
From the group that brought you Ms G's and Felix comes this big, beautiful Cantonese restaurant housed over two floors of a handsome heritage building. Australia's best Chinese? We think so.
Drinks: Tapavino
A cool laneway bar with a Spanish soul and an Australian lack of pretension. The food, wines and sherries are so good you could stay here all night, but ...
Dinner: Rockpool
It's nice to know that, despite everything, there's still a place for the Big Night Out, especially if it's brought to you from someone who's been around the block a few times. That would be Neil Perry, then, at his reborn Rockpool on Bridge Street. Now this is a restaurant.
ADELAIDE, CBD
Stay: Clarendon Soho
A sharp little hotel at the eastern end of the city, close to Rymil Park.
Breakfast/coffee: East End Providore
In the cute, reborn Ebenezer Place, EEP has the kind of atmosphere any food lover would feel at home with. If a weekend nduja scrambled eggs and a green juice (kale, green apple and cucumber) doesn't lift your spirits ...
Lunch: Street-ADL
The casual bar-eatery has added a new string to the Rundle Street bow. It's hip, social, informal and uses lots of indigenous ingredients (Orana restaurant upstairs is breaking new ground with its use of native ingredients in a contemporary cuisine).
Drinks: Cantina Sociale
The kind of wine bar only Adelaide could produce. It's all about limited-availability wines in the barrel, sourced by producers from other producers.
Dinner: Peel Street
Bristles with what really matters: friendly service, a convivial atmosphere and food that just jumps out of its skin with freshness and flavour. Every city should have a restaurant like this.
Next day breakfast: Coffee Branch
In the delightful Leigh Street, it may look all flannel and beards, but they do a fine job with the beans. Grab a toastie, a paper and watch the world pass by.
Lunch: Bistro Dom
Run by chef Duncan Welgemoed, this is very much a restaurant in the mode of Parisian bistronomy. Smart, fun and unpredictable.
Drinks: Clever Little Tailor
Both clever and little. A great example of upcycling building materials and fittings, the place appeals to a more mature crowd, thank goodness.
Dinner: Golden Boy
This is the city's latest buzz joint, a rollicking mod-Thai diner. We'd like to think that, now early hysteria has calmed, there's some good, authentic Thai food on offer here.
HOBART
Stay: The Henry Jones Art Hotel
Still one of the best recycled heritage conversions to accommodation in Australia, this is a very cool base for a Hobart visit.
Breakfast/coffee: Tricycle
Tucked away from Salamanca's masses, this is cute, caring and a tonic for those needing coffee and a breakfast that isn't eggs on toast.
Lunch: Tasman Quartermasters
An easy walk from the waterfront, this is a place for informal food - steaks, burgers and even Bruny Island wallaby - done well.
Dinner: Ethos Eat Drink
Makes a big effort to produce interesting local food. It's all about small producers, doing things well, in the hands of chefs who intervene minimally. Set menu.
Breakfast/coffee next day: Smolt
One of Hobart's best-run restaurants also operates as a cafe during the morning, and it's an excellent place to start the day.
BRISBANE, Fortitude Valley
Stay: Emporium Hotel
Brisbane's coolest small hotel is in a part of town just exploding with new businesses aimed at food and wine lovers.
Breakfast: Chester Street
A cafe/bakery built around an Alan Scott-designed wood oven, that says a lot about its food values.
Coffee: Campos Coffee
A big name, and their Fortitude Valley cafe is a showcase for roasting and, therefore, great coffee. Super staff.
Lunch: Tinderbox Kitchen
Another wood oven-focused eatery, and the simple food produced here - pizza, gnocchi, corn salads, slow-roasted joints - is done really well.
Drinks: Newstead Brewing
The city's newest craft producer, set up in a character-laden former bus garage. It's not just about beer. Michael Conrad is a restaurateur who caters to many tastes.
Dinner: Gerard's Bistro
With its cool, laid-back bar area and Palm Springs dining-room aesthetic, this bistro has won a lot of followers since opening early last year. A lot of the fuss is about the kitchen's progressive, Middle Eastern-inspired food.
Source: News Limited - 7 January 2014
