Five Dishes to Order at Tiny’s

“Simple”. It’s an idea chef Jacob D’Vauz regularly returns to when talking about the food at Tiny’s, the almost-open restaurant from team Mary Street Bakery. It makes sense, when you think about it. The Tiny’s modus operandi – serve delicious, share-friendly food and drinks in a warm sit-down space, cooked over wood, mostly – is the foundation of hospitality and something owners Paul Aron and Michael Forde have made a career out of. For D’Vauz – a product of the Rockpool Bar & Grill kitchen – gut feel informed a lot of his menu decisions.

“A lot of it is what I want to eat when I go to a place and want to relax,” he says. “I want vegetables. I want raw. I want punchy flavours.”

In Tiny’s at QV1, D’Vauz has the perfect vehicle for sharing his thoughts on eating, not least because he’s got a woodfired grill and inner-city kitchen garden (it’s across the road in a communal space all the building’s tenants share) at his disposal.

Although the menu will serve as a showcase for what’s being picked in the garden, a number of core dishes sit at its heart. Here’s a snapshot of what’ll be on offer, in the words of Tiny’s youthful head chef.

Crudites, yuzukosho, sunflower cream
“A dish of raw vegetables that reflect what we’re about in the rawest form. For the past two months, we’ve been growing things like carrots, radishes and leaves in our rooftop garden. We pick all our vegetables and herbs right before service. Yuzukosho is a fermented Japanese chilli paste that we mix together with sunflower oil to make basically a vegan mayonnaise.”

Flatbread with togarashi and mussel dip
“Our flatbread is made with a spelt and sesame sourdough and baked to order. Togarashi, a Japanese spice mix, brings out the flavour of the sesame and adds heat to the dish. The mussel dip is almost a mussel pate and uses mussels that have been smoked with wood from apple, plum and chestnut trees. We then add some confit garlic to it and that’s it. We keep everything simple to highlight the mussels and smoke.”

Rotisserie chicken, nduja, bread sauce
“Cooking the chickens is a two-day process. We use corn-fed free-range Lilydale chickens that we wet- and dry-brine and then hang in a humidifier, which helps crisp the skin. We serve it with a bread sauce made with Mary Street Bakery sourdough and nduja, a spicy Calabrian meat paste with a fermented chilli flavour that’s been cured for about three months.”

Beef intercostal stick, blood plum, saltbush
“Beef intercostals are the meat between the ribeye. It’s a secondary cut that doesn’t get used but is a pretty rewarding piece of meat to eat. We marinate it with plum and saltbush from the garden and skewer it yakitori-style before getting a lot of smoke on it.”

Green apple and lemon verbena sorbet
“We wanted a simple, inexpensive palate-cleanser dessert. This is the sort of dessert that will change as things go in and out of season. We had lemon verbena in our garden and combined it with a bit of apple, lime and served it with some aloe vera gel. It’s a refreshing way to end the meal.”

Tiny's opens on Monday April 30.

Tiny’s
QV1, 250 St Georges Terrace, Perth

Hours:
Mon to Sat 11.30am–late
Sat 4pm–late

tinysbar.com.au