ast week, Ladro in Fitzroy and in Prahran became the first restaurants in Melbourne to setup beehives on the roofs of each restaurant, a practice that’s been commonplace in European cities, particularly Paris, for at least 200 years. The hives will supply honey to both kitchens in dishes like the organic honey pannacotta at Ladro Greville and the Nord pizza at Ladro Gertrude, supporting the restaurants’ belief in providing good local produce where possible.

Co-owner Ingrid Langtry says, “Any excess liquid gold to be given away or sold. A portion of the honey goes back to an urban bee keeping project ‘Melbourne City Rooftop Honey’ who will be tending to the bees’ every need.”

Ladro Greville has taken the pannacotta off the menu until they can use their own honey and this could take a while as one of the many interesting facts about these fascinating insects is that each worker bee usually only produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her life time. This is a fact that is opening the door for Langtry to a potential new obsession.

“There are some amazing cool facts [about bees] and I am warning you that once you start you will likely become obsessed! I have been. I can see why Jerry Seinfeld became so obsessed and ended up writing Bee Movie!”

ladro.com.au
rooftophoney.com.au