First Look: Order Udon Carbonara at New Japanese Wine Bar Tenko
“I don’t have riesling or pinot grigio,” Nicholas Oliveiro says. “I want to push people out of their comfort zone.” Oliveiro is the sommelier behind new Brunswick East hideaway Tenko Sake and Wine Bar – his first solo venture after two decades in hospitality, most recently managing Collingwood izakaya Chotto Motto.
The Lygon Street bar pays homage to the previous occupant of 12 years, Brunswick East Wine Store. Just inside the door is an intimate bottle shop whose curved plywood shelves are lined with Oliveiro’s personal favourites. Among them are rare finds like a malvasia istriana from Heathcote’s Dott – the only vineyard outside the Istrian peninsula cultivating the grape.
Further in, the space centres on a green-tiled bar with a polished wooden counter, where Oliveiro runs a seamless show, pouring drinks and running plates single-handedly. Light wood panelling stretches up to a crimson ceiling hung with noren curtains, while a paper light box casts a warm glow over the 10-seat bar.
“People are so curious about saké and wine, and doing this one-on-one removes the barrier to entry entirely,” Oliviero says. “There are only a couple of places like this in the city.”
He wanted to open a space where unfamiliar bottles feel approachable rather than intimidating. “I want to be able to showcase phenomenal wine at an affordable price,” he says. True to his word, the bottle-shop offering includes hard-to-find drops like Chantereves’s aligotés for well under their typical $100 to $300 asking price.
The by-the-glass list, meanwhile, guides drinkers towards corners of the wine world they might not otherwise encounter. The globetrotting line-up jumps from Austrian reds and Greek whites to skin-contact Victorian blends, and Oliveiro uses every pour to share the stories behind the producers.
The saké list is equally adventurous. Instead of drowning visitors in jargon, it’s arranged in chapters by mood and story, moving from easygoing staples to rare vintages such as a 1991 Kidoizumi Kokin. The menu carves out special space for Shiga Prefecture, Oliveiro’s favourite saké region, as well as fruited umeshu and yuzushu; aged saké, or koshu; and a flight celebrating female brewmasters.
The food likewise skips the usual script. “When you open a wine bar,” Oliveiro says, “people expect olives, cheese and fish. I wanted to serve something different – Japanese-inspired, but mostly just things I love to make and eat in my own life.”
That means comfort-led dishes like a rich udon carbonara and a golden Welsh rarebit made with saké, Vegemite and yuzu koshu. Other dishes draw on techniques borrowed from Oliveiro’s favourite culinary texts, including a house pickle plate with miso-fermented fennel inspired by master preserver Yoko Nakazawa’s fermenting guides.
As he plates and pours, Oliveiro spins an eclectic soundtrack that shifts from Japanese pop early in the evening to hip-hop later on. No matter the hour, whether it’s an unfamiliar saké or a rare wine in your glass, Oliveiro’s promise remains simple: “I wouldn’t pour it if it wasn’t beautiful.”
Tenko Sake and Wine
472 Lygon Street, Brunswick East
Hours:
Mon 6pm–10pm
Wed & Thu 6pm–10pm
Fri & Sat 4pm–10pm
About the author
Nomi is a Melbourne-based food and culture writer.
