Snack Bar: Hope St Radio’s Sunday Bake Sale and More Melbourne Food News

Published every Thursday, Snack Bar is your bite-sized guide to everything happening in Melbourne food and drink, including new menus, events, pop-ups and special offers. Plus, we round up every new restaurant, bar and cafe we covered over the previous seven days.

What’s on around Melbourne

• It’s been seven years since Beatbox Kitchen and Taco Truck boss Raph Rashid flipped 1150 burgers for 24 hours straight, raising $28,000 for Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS). From 11am this Saturday, August 29, he’s doing it all again at his Brunswick burger joint Juanita Peaches, with 100 per cent of profits to YSAS. Pop into Flip-a-Thon at any time for a burger and donate $25 for a chance to win prizes from Pidapipó, Meatsmith, A1 Bakery and more. Throughout the gruelling stretch, DJ sets will keep the vibes high for Rashid and customers. Tom Sarafian, Danny and Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring), DJ Dedlee, Umut, Mark Fletcher and Geezy will be spinning tunes.

• Naga Dining is one of a few hot Thai pop-ups doing the rounds in Melbourne, including a recent dinner at Geralds for our second Dine Out festival. From midday till 8pm on August 30, it heads to Mitcham for an exciting collab at the Hot Listed Dutch Rules Distilling, exploring the boundaries between Thai and Sri Lankan cuisines. Some highlights include smoked Port Arlington mussels with tomato vinegar, oxtongue curry with hazelnuts, and spanner crab doughnuts. The menu also includes house ferments and one-off cocktails featuring Dutch Rules liqueurs. Book here.

• Community radio station Triple R is celebrating 50 years of broadcasting. For an incredible 39 of those years, Cam Smith has been hosting weekly food show Eat It. From midday to 1pm on August 30, he’ll host a special live taping at Triple R’s subscriber-only Performance Space, interviewing chefs Karen Martini (Bar Carolina), Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook) and Joseph Abboud (Rumi) about migration, culture and changing palates. Tune in on 102.7FM or online.

• Jazz fans, vinyl fans, this one’s for you. On Saturday August 29, Fitzroy North pub The Pinnacle is co-hosting a record fair with Jazz Duet. Six collectors from the music and hospitality worlds – Caretaker’s Cottage, The Roundtable, Mark Fletcher, Tim Varney, Scott Eddington and DJ ILREZ – will have crates for sale in the pool room. There’s free filter coffee, plus bacon-and-egg rolls and haloumi muffins. 11am–5pm.

• Armadale Bakery The Cake Club turns three this week. On Saturday August 29 it celebrates with a $3 coffee, free birthday cake cookies for the first 100 customers, gift bags and prizes, and plenty of baked goodies. 8am–1pm.

• Hope St Radio’s pastry-loving sous chef, Kate Moore, is also hosting a bake sale this weekend. Hit the Collingwood wine bar from 10am onwards this Sunday August 30. Goodies on offer (until sold out) include blood orange meringue choux au craquelins, spiced fruit shokupan buns, cookies and more.

• Umami, or savouriness, is sometimes referred to as the fifth taste after sweet, salty, sour and bitter. It’s a crucial pillar of Japanese cuisine and the theme of Sachi x Bar Kaeru’s collab dinner, The Fifth Taste, on August 30. Sushi and saké is what you’re in for as Sachi owner Reki Reinantha and his head chef Shinwoo Hong invite friend Sean Then of Bar Kaeru for a three-course dinner with matched drinks from the 300-year-old Nakashima Brewery in Gifu Prefecture. $120 per person. Bookings essential.

• Argentinean restaurant San Telmo is firing up the barbie parilla for Australiana, a five-course Sunday lunch on August 30 featuring native ingredients and a hint of Waltzing Matilda mythology. Dishes include charcoal-baked damper with native bush honey, fried cheese and Vegemite empanadas, wallaby tartare with bush tomato spice, O’Connor scotch fillet with pepperberry chimichurri, and strawberry gum meringue with Davidson’s plum for dessert. $149 per person, including a welcome cocktail. Book here.

• Fresh off his Dine Out collab at Mesa Verde, ex-Yardbird chef Geoff Marett is bringing his Nama pop-up to Collingwood diner Jollygood from 6pm on August 31. The menu is yet to be revealed, but creative Asian with a penchant for Japanese is usually in order when he’s in the kitchen. Bookings are essential.

• Rolo’s Pizza Club is coming to Hot Listed Collingwood brewery Molly Rose. From 4pm to close on September 11, Geoff Marett and Nama alum Raph Hyams will pop up with a menu of four pizzas and four snacks, paired with special drinks from the brewery. The duo’s take on the margherita features smoked olive oil, parmesan and black pepper. Other options include stracciatella and hot honey; zucchini and ’nduja with pine nut pangrattato; and a very intriguing prawn and nori pizza that speaks to Nama’s Japanese roots. Bookings are essential.

• Trisha Greentree is one of Sydney’s finest chefs. She currently steers the ship at Potts Point Italian institution Fratelli Paradiso. Andrew McConnell’s Cumulus is bringing her to town on September 8 to prepare a four-course set menu at $150 per person. Highlights include potato doughnuts with anchovy, a green and white asparagus salad, and saffron risotto with roasted scallops. Book here.

• Hot Listed Fitzroy North wine bar Public Wine Shop has a knack for hiring the most interesting chefs’-favourite-chef types in the country. And when it can’t hire them, it brings them in for one-off events. On September 13 the name is Aaron Turner, the lauded chef behind Geelong restaurants Igni, Songbird, Tacos y Liquor and Hot Chicken Project. He’ll cook a four-course lunch menu priced at $95 per person. Book here.

What we covered this week

• First Look: Moon, Lune’s cruller spin-off, opens in the CBD.

• Coming soon: Dafina Seaside Grill, Ellie Bouhadana’s debut restaurant.

• Chef Peter Gunn announces a new yakitori project, five months after closing Ides on Smith Street.

• First Look: order udon carbonara at new Japanese wine bar Tenko

• First Look: Mada brings hard-to-find Filipino pastries to Collingwood.

• Jess Lemon Bakery opens at last, with jumbo pains au chocolat worth travelling for.

• New CBD bakery Maison Bake is fancy by name, not by nature.

• The Windsor Castle gets permission to reopen – minus a tree.

• Hot Listed West Melbourne bar and bottle shop Benchwarmer is closing.

• The best places for late-night dining, according to 23 top chefs.