Kensington Needed a Community Wine Bar. So an Ex-Mamasita Chef Opened Arnold’s

Gippsland-raised Scott Eddington (ex-Mamasita, ex-A1 Canteen) has lived and worked in Sydney for a number of years. But the chef recently made Melbourne inner-city suburb Kensington his home. It ticked all the boxes but one.

“You’re three kilometres from the city, tree-lined streets, [there’s a] village feel and there’s no wine bar. There’s no little cool restaurant,” he tells Broadsheet.

Local favourite White Rabbit Record Bar has a few wines on offer, but the closest dedicated wine bar is a suburb away.

So Eddington and his partner Lauren Chibert opened Arnold’s, named after the chef’s grandfather. The pair hopes it will become the sort of place you can stop by spontaneously for a glass of wine and a dessert.

“We’re just taking bookings inside at the moment, and then allowing the bar space and courtyard for walk-ins, so we can have that joy of anybody showing up,” he says.

Eddington was previously head chef at Mamasita, where he developed a love for Mexican flavours and ingredients, which has carried through into his food at Arnold’s. But he’s quick to clarify that the menu isn’t Mexican. Rather, it’s taking elements of Mexican cooking and reinterpreting them through a local lens.

The changing menu currently includes King George whiting from Corner Inlet served with manchamanteles, a sweet slow-cooked Oaxacan mole usually made with pineapples, bananas and guajillo chillies. There’s also a chilli, tamarind and pomegranate-glazed Otway pork chop with walnut cream inspired by chiles en nogada (a pork-stuffed pepper with similar toppings, created to look like the Mexican flag). Desserts include an orange and chipotle flan, and a caramelised banana, coffee amaro and Mexican cacao tiramisu.

Arnold’s is in a former burger shop. “It’s been this real wholesome, fun journey,” Eddington says of fitting out the space. The couple’s next door neighbour helped build the bar, Eddington and his mum made much of the artwork themselves, and Chibert’s mum sewed all the aprons and napkins. “Everything is kind of from everywhere,” he says. Plates were gifted by Eddington’s friend and former boss Matthew Butcher, glassware is from North Melbourne wine bar Manze and Grada (previously, Worksmith). The the tiles on the bar were the former floor tiles at Manze, where Eddington and Chibert ran a pop-up while waiting for their liquor licence to be approved.

Manze owner Nagesh Seethiah also wrote the Arnold’s wine list, which Eddington describes as “versatile”. There are 30 to 40 bottles at any given time and there will always be something from Eddington’s home region.

“My parents still live there and they don’t like Gippsland wine,” says Eddington. “So I go out of my way to find the best wine in Gippsland to show them that it’s actually really fucking good.”

Arnold’s
192 Bellair Street, Kensington
No phone

Hours:
Thu 5pm–10pm
Fri 5pm–11pm
Sat midday–11pm
Sun midday–6pm

arnoldskensington.com