With so many Melbourne restaurants and cafes now selling topnotch pantry staples, ready-made meals, bottled cocktails and more, it can be hard to keep track of what’s available.
Co-Lab Pantry, which launched in June, brings more than 200 such products together in one easy-to-navigate online hub – with nationwide shipping.
Staples include peanut butter from Collingwood fine diner Ides; bolognaise from Andrew McConnell’s Meatsmith butcher shops; Market Lane coffee; and Rustica sourdough loaves.
You can also pick up heat-and-eat meals, such as Lagoon Dining’s dan dan noodles and beef rending; King and Godfree’s eggplant parmigiana and gnocchi; and Drumplings’s cheeseburger dumplings.
On the sweet front, find Messina spreads and ice-cream toppings (including choc-hazelnut and dulce de leche); Four Pillars’ Negroni marmalade (that’s a condiment, not a cocktail); organic chocolate from Hunted and Gathered; self-saucing puddings from Piccolina; and dark-chocolate-coated honeycomb from Bibelot.
And to drink: bottled cocktails by The Everleigh and Capitano (there’s an olive-oil-spiked Martini and an Old Fashioned with peanut butter and miso); Stomping Ground sixpacks; and Zonzo vino.
Co-Lab Pantry was conceived by Danielle Lebon, Avin Chadee and Natasha Buttigieg, who’ve pooled their respective retail, digital marketing and hospitality expertise to help the food and booze industries navigate Covid-19.
“The response has been great so far – we’re seeing people getting a bunch of different meals and drinks,” says Lebon. “That being said, we’ve had a customer stock up solely on 10 jars of Chotto Motto chilli oil.”
While Co-Lab Pantry was born out of the coronavirus era, it will be sticking around post-lockdown. So too will its online events, which cover pasta-making and tips for brewing better coffee at home.
“We quickly realised that people all around Australia recognise Melbourne’s hospitality scene as being one of the best in the world,” Lebon says, “and they want to have access to that even when they can’t be there.”
Most Co-Lab Pantry products ship nationwide. Shipping takes two to seven business days, and the cost varies depending on your location.
