First Look: Pipis Kiosk Brings Its Seafood Expertise to Fitzroy for the Summer

A visit to Pipis Kiosk is dreamy. The Albert Park restaurant is right on the shore, overlooking Kerferd Road Pier and Hobsons Bay. The view and the atmosphere are so good, it’s easy to forget the food – from the restaurant and the adjoining fish’n’chips stand – is equally impressive.

At summer pop-up Pipis North, the team – led by executive chef Jordan Clay and head sommelier Tom Hunter – brings its beachside-appropriate culinary approach to the former Cantina Moro space. “We wanted to bring that seafood-leaning menu to the north side,” says Clay, originally from Canada. “I feel like it’s a little bit of an untapped market. In Australia, we have one of the most diverse and exciting plethora of seafood available to us, and Aussies actually don’t eat that much seafood compared to other nations that have that diverse availability.” 

The pop-up is inspired by tapas bars on the Basque coast and, as a result, is more relaxed than the OG Pipis, which opened in 2020. “It’s got a similar DNA to the [Albert Park] dining room,” says Clay. “However, I’d say it’s a lot more approachable. It’s a little bit cheaper as well, and more of a bar vibe so you can just pop in.” The snacky menu caters well to those looking for a quick bite, but people are also encouraged to linger over a drink and a few oysters.

Clay is joined in the kitchen by Pipis North head chef (current Pipis Kiosk sous chef) David Kerr. They’re serving entirely new dishes with the exception of the salt-and-pepper squid, an old Pipis favourite that Clay says he took off the menu because it was too popular. “It was just like fever pitch and we didn't want to get pigeonholed into just being about this.” One item Clay is particularly excited about is a marlin crudo with salted watermelon. Thinly sliced fish – “almost like a carpaccio of marlin” – is dressed with a watermelon-and-citrus-oil dressing. It’s then topped with a slice of watermelon with the rind slightly on. 

There’s a remarkably long wine list for a pop-up of six weeks (eight, if it proves popular enough). Find saline white wines, mineral-driven chardonnay and “salty sips”, including fino sherry with Pipis’ seaside salad gin. The gin, a collaboration with North Melbourne distillery Here’s Looking at You Kid, “is inspired by and produced with ingredients from the seaside”, Hunter says. Native bull kelp, a type of seaweed; kunzea, a plant endemic to Australasia; and oyster shells from Pipis Kiosk are used in the gin ferment, creating a “similar effect to the effect of limestone and chablis”. Happy hour runs from 4pm to 6pm with $4 oysters, $16 Melbourne Bitter longnecks and $50 half bottles of wine that pair well with oysters, such as chablis and riesling.

Pipis North
274 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
(03) 9417 0526

Hours:
Wed to Fri 4pm–11pm
Sat midday–11pm
Sun midday–10pm

@pipisnorth