Walnuts, wrapped in pancetta with apple.
DARRIAN TRAYNOR
Snare a parking space. Then set a stopwatch. Because once you enter St Jude’s Cellars, time will rapidly slip away. And Yarra City Council parking officers are second only to the vicious team from Bayside City Council during the Australian Masters golf tournament.
As soon as you’re seated within the generous, high-ceilinged space and clutching a copy of the chic wine list and the seductive menu, the countdown begins. How much can you consume in, say, less than two hours?
The concept behind this upbeat inner-urban wine bar?is disarmingly honest. The wines on the menu are for sale. If you enjoy one, or two, they would like you to buy them.
If only every bottleshop had such well-considered food. And it’s proffered at pub prices, or sometimes less.
The wine list works on the premise that spending less on simple food allows for greater wine indulgence, although many are decently priced. There are almost 30?by-the-glass choices (from sparkling to fortified) and 80 bottle choices, about half of them Australian. Plus a daunting array displayed in open black-wire racks around the room.
Head chef Tomas Stanislavski arrived at St Jude’s about a month ago. He helped his wife Leilani Wolfenden set up Next Door in Northcote earlier this year. Wolfenden had also worked at St Jude’s.
Stanislavski finished his apprenticeship at Ondine in 2001 and worked and travelled in Europe. He left restaurants to study nutrition at the former Australian College of Natural Medicine (now the Australasian College of Natural Therapies) and then spent some time “researching” organics and biodynamics by working for an organic grocer.
“I was going to the markets and seeing things in a different way,” he says. “It was an incredible experience and it completely changed my perspective.’’ That outlook is clear on the menu he has created at St Jude’s.
Produce is named, but brands aren’t blared across it. It’s carefully sourced by the chef, which he says is hard work but keeps meal prices down. And it’s used modestly and carefully, with an eye on the “higher purpose” (to sell vino).
Stanislavski recognises that his place of employment is “a wine bar first and a restaurant second”. And for him, creating dishes to complement wine “has made it?easier, because my food is simple and the flavours aren’t complex”.
The “with a drink” dishes are based around ingredients that are good partners for wine. Think freshly cracked walnuts wrapped in pancetta with apple.?This easy combination of flavours was fresh and?light, although I did find the pancetta a little insipid?and would have preferred a stronger-flavoured, leaner meat.
Also on the list was a snapper-and-quinoa ball, baked with a tomato sauce. I’m a fan of grains – and Stanislavski uses them well. The organic, Tasmanian-grown quinoa was of excellent quality, but the dish, created to be served at room temperature, was too cold (it was a cool night) for its flavours, which included capers from the Pyrenees, to shine.
These are minor criticisms, though; what followed was better, such as a tiny dish of fried Glenloth chicken wings, treated to a zippy balance of spices and a finger-licking yoghurt-and-sesame dressing.
We eyed off a lamb ragu with pappardelle and chicory, but decided to order the simpler Plains Paddock lamb with tomato, peas and reisling. The large cutlets were flawless and their rich, wine-based sauce lifted the flavours agreeably; an assured crowd pleaser.
Our other main dish, mussels in Coldstream cider, was served in a dark, earthen bowl. A contrast with many of the other dishes served on antique bone-china plates. The pungent, steaming broth, enhanced by garlic?and shallots, surrounded plump Tasmanian Spring Bay mussels, which were all the better for their exacting treatment.
Sides were necessary, but more than reasonably priced. A charry eggplant and broad bean dish (the broad beans weren’t podded, but they have more texture?that way) on top of a bed of creamy goat’s curd was terrific.
The short dessert list is extended by daily specials. One regular, a mascarpone cake with jelly and hazelnut sponge, is not yet a runaway seller, says Stanislavski. It should be. It’s a classically good dish. The creamy cheese, textured cake base and the delicate jelly topping were a harmonious, indulgent combination.
And the finely tuned, attentive service ensured we had settled the bill and were out the door – with two minutes to spare.
Verdict
Knowledgeable, confident service, uncomplicated – but not dumbed-down – food, and a wine offering to make you reassess (or at least add to) your collection, are just some of the positives at St Jude’s. The atmosphere is industrious and loud, but corners suited to intimacy do exist. There’s entertainment in the open kitchen and enough wine to prevent obsessive collectors bragging about their own cellars.
Eat this
St Jude’s Cellars, 389-391 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Phone \ 9419 7411
Chef \ Tomas Stanislavski
Prices \ Starters $6-$12; lighter dishes $12-$17; mains $18-$32; desserts $6-$13
Open \ Breakfast Saturday-Sunday 9am-noon; lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday noon-10.30pm
The concrete floors and whitewashed walls inside this cavernous space should make it seem stark and clinical. But the semi-industrial look, enhanced by black-wire wine racks cleverly used to divide spaces, is softened by the vast collection of wine bottles and the use of straying plants that add a greenhouse effect. Padded stools wrap around the ultra-long bar, while pale-timber tables and neat taupe chairs fill the spaces between the wine racks. There’s an open kitchen window, and the boxed kitchen fridge in the centre of the room inspires curiosity.
