Where To Eat (and Drink) Right Now: Australia’s Best Openings in January
Words by Broadsheet Editors · Updated on 05 Mar 2024 · Published on 06 Feb 2024
Australia’s hospitality operators didn’t use January as an excuse to take a holiday – new launches came thick and fast. Broadsheet ’s city editors have picked the best of the bunch to add to your local hit list, or to check out on your next interstate trip. Enjoy!
Melbourne
Brico owners Josh Begbie and Phil Bracey met in London, where they bonded over a shared love of drinking and dining, which they indulged while exploring the food scenes of the UK and Europe together. In 2016 Begbie returned to Australia, where he worked as venue manager and wine buyer at local institution Bar Liberty. Bracey stayed on in London until last year, helping to establish pioneering wine bar P Franco and restaurant Bright. Now the pair have teamed up to launch Brico, a buzzy neighbourhood wine bar in Carlton North where the food menu is of-the-moment and the wines are not “esoteric for the point of being esoteric”, according to Bracey. Chef Simon Ball-Smith’s (ex- Public Wine Shop) menu includes snacks like Sydney rock oysters with a white-pepper mignonette, and more substantial dishes such as panisse (French chickpea fritters); pippies with butter beans, jamon and sherry; and grilled oxtongue with potatoes and horseradish. As for the wine selection? It homes in on purity, freshness and vibrancy.
Sydney
Gaia Gelato’s name hints at its ethos: gelato is made on-site from scratch each day using whole ingredients (Gaia is the Greek goddess of the Earth). Each flavour is all-natural and no colours are added, meaning the scoops are visually a little more muted than at some other gelaterie. The focus here is on quality and taste, evidenced in a constantly changing menu of flavours, ranging from Italian classics – like lemon, vanilla or amarena, with black cherries that come direct from Italy – and seasonal flavours (there’s currently a summery mango and passionfruit), to customer requests. A local favourite, just weeks after opening, is the peach and basil. The Randwick gelateria’s founders, Emanuele Giannetti and Franco Alvarez, met in software development, and Giannetti learnt his craft during a two-week crash course in his native Tuscany. “We’ve got a very passionate guy in the kitchen doing his thing – hopefully that translates to the gelato,” says Alvarez.
Adelaide
Twenty-two years after launching in Sydney, Gelato Messina has finally landed in owner Nick Palumbo’s home town of Adelaide. The gelato behemoth’s latest is in Kent Town’s old Alchemy Ironworks site, which has been given a mid-century-inspired makeover, bringing it into line with many of Messina’s other stores: timber panelling, terrazzo-speckled flooring and bench seating, and textured white walls inside and out. The cabinet features 35 signature flavours and five rotating limited editions, and visitors can pick up Messina’s gelato cakes and jars of house-made dulce de leche and choc-hazelnut spread to take home. Ingredients all come straight from Messina HQ in Sydney’s inner west, and the gelato is churned on-site in Kent Town using high-fat Jersey-cow milk from the brand’s own farm in Victoria.
Perth
The bar formerly known as The Flour Factory has been reimagined as Spring, an all-night drinking, dancing and dining venue kitted out with neon-light installations, botanical wallpaper, DJ booths and a six-metre-tall artificial wisteria tree that sprouts up from the ground-floor restaurant. Geared towards a younger crowd, a perfect night at Spring kicks off with dinner downstairs in the 120-seat restaurant. Executive chef Charlie Vargas’s menu – including Emu Point oysters, lobster rolls, zucchini flowers with labneh and burnt honey, rigatoni alla vodka, and Wagyu sirloin – is designed for sharing. Cocktails aren’t too bartender-y; instead, expect the likes of a Mango Margarita (Rooster Rojo blanco tequila, house-made mango syrup and cumin salt) and boozy slushies to cool down after a stint on the 250-person dance floor. Glass teapots dispensing colourful, shareable drinks like pink strawberry gin and tropical spiced rum cocktails are set to become a signature.
Brisbane
Bar Rocco was opened to solve a problem: where to send diners who showed up early for their bookings at sister venue Ramona Trattoria. Owner Ashley-Maree Kent’s solution was to open an osteria next door, where you can get a pre-dinner drink or settle in for a casual dinner. If you’re opting for the latter, you might start with snacks like charred focaccia with whipped ricotta and tomato, and crumbed veal panini before moving onto pizzetta with toppings like mortadella, pistachio and stracciatella, or ’nduja, honey, parmigiana and mascarpone. Rustic plates of Skull Island prawns with capers, herbs and lemon, and swordfish with olives and tomatoes come from the woodfired grill, while a 50-strong wine list features picks from Italy, Spain and Portugal. Various spritzes, an Amaro Sour and a Panettone-inspired Negroni star on the 10-drink cocktail list.
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