Now Open: Neighbourhood Spot Ascot Food & Wine Fulfills Its Long-Held Night-Time Ambitions With Lobster Rolls, Vodka Pasta and Grown-Up Viennetta

Since launching in 2014, Ascot Food & Wine had been operating as a cafe. But that was never the original concept.

“I always wanted it to be a local bistro,” says chef and co-owner Dave Stewart, whose plans were stymied by a liquor licence that refused to materialise. The venue sat empty for months before Stewart decided to shift his focus.

“I said to my business partner, ‘I think we need to do something,’” says Stewart. “So that’s when we decided to open Ascot Food Store as a cafe.”

It wasn’t till 2019 that the venue’s licence finally came through and Stewart’s vision began to come to life. Then came the pandemic and six lockdowns. Now, with new business partners (model Megan Gale and her partner, ex-footballer Shaun Hampson), a new fit-out and an all-day dining menu (hard drinks included), the eatery has taken its final form.

Though Ascot Food & Wine still trades in the morning, the selection is a pared-back version of what it once was. Instead, the emphasis is on lunch and dinner – specifically, simple, well-executed seafood.

“There’s something about cooking seafood I love,” says Stewart. “It’s so elegant. It’s almost like it’s already there; you don’t have to do too much to it.”

This approach holds true across the menu, which includes oysters two ways, lobster rolls with Kewpie mayo, prawns dressed with capers and fermented chilli, dry-aged yellowfin with bonito vinegar and nori, and lightly fried King George whiting brightened up with pickled carrot and parsley.

Vegetarians will find comfort in carpaccio-style tomato topped with chives and stracciatella, and paccheri (like rigatoni, but larger) served in a rich vodka and Aleppo pepper sauce.

Meat eaters also have plenty of choice, including two steaks and a fancied-up chicken Kiev, but the veal cotoletta is a standout. Stewart based it on a classic parma, swapping tasty cheese for stracciatella, ham for mortadella, and passata for tomato and chive oil.

Some of this retro novelty extends to dessert, where there’s tiramisu, thick fingers of yuzu cheesecake and a contemporary spin on Viennetta made with salted caramel, vanilla and chocolate ripple.

To drink there’s a selection of classic cocktails and mostly European wines curated by a transplant from Perth’s La Madonna Nera , plus a small but impressive whisky range.

From beyond the glass door, the venue – which used to be a Spanish deli and milk bar pre-2014 – is unassuming.

“It’s a lot bigger than what you see from the outside,” says Stewart. “You look at the front and it’s this old milk bar that probably had many different lives before, but when you walk in it’s transformed into something else.”

The bar sits at the front with a few dim pendant lights hanging overhead. Beside it are two plush, U-shaped booths and beyond it, a few dark, moody dining rooms – one of which was formerly a domestic kitchen. To add a sense of intimacy to those areas, Stewart’s added custom spotlights that just frame each table, offering a striking stage to present his plates.

Ascot Food & Wine
320 Ascot Vale Road, Moonee Ponds
(03) 9370 2649

Hours
Wed to Fri 10am–10pm
Thu to Sat 9am–10pm
Sun 10am–4pm

ascotfoodandwine.com
@chefdavestewart