First Look: The Porcine Team Nails the Upstairs-Downstairs Thing With L’Avant Cave

Matt Fitzgerald is drilling something into the wall when Broadsheet calls to chat. He’s doing the last-minute jobs before the old P&V bottle-o and its back courtyard reopen as wine bar L’Avant Cave. It’s the “front cellar” for Porcine, the exceptional French bistro upstairs that Fitzgerald owns with chef Nik Hill.

The new bar had a bit of a test run last year, when the rent-sharing teams formalised their relationship. But P&V is out, the interiors are fresh, the menu’s evolved and L’Avant Cave is ready for drinkers. 

The changeover was a whole-team job. “It’s always a frantic rush to get there, but such is life in hospitality,” Fitzgerald says. “We got there. All the guys in the kitchen, front of house staff, painting – they called it ‘tradie week’. A lot of our staff have been with us for a long time, to get everyone involved was really fun. And, you know, they have a bit of ownership as well. They painted that wall, sanded the wood.”

The P&V wine fridges make way for banquettes. Walls got a fresh coat. High-top tables and window seating arrived. Mirrors, menu blackboards and vintage prints from Paris and poster shops are up, along with a better sound system. Sam McAleer, of Smackas Creative, painted a blue-on-blue mural on the little laneway wall outside, with both Kim Siew (responsible for the Porcine pig) and Steady Hand Studio’s Lance Corlett adding creative touches too. But despite all that newness, the brief remains the same.

“We’re just sticking to what we know best,” Fitzgerald says. “Serving people, having a good time, keeping chill. Amazing product, really good team – which is what you want.”

Hill’s snacks are objectively outstanding. Gold, sharp-cornered rectangles of fried panisse are topped with quince and tight golden curls of mimolette. Oeufs Caesar (a funky egg-and-anchovy two-biter) join parfait toasts, fresh and baked oysters, and an ever-changing mix of fruits de mer.

“They’re $12 each, so you can build your own seafood plate,” says Fitzgerald. “There’s always a tartare on, there’s slightly cured sardines on brioche, little crumbed scallops with gribiche, smoked dory roe and potato crisps.” Order a few of the pretty things and they’ll arrive as a platter of ocean treasures.

There’s a terrine, currently a pig’s head rillette served with duck fat toast; a plat Provencal of fresh, pickled and dressed veggies, along with tapenade and a house goat’s cheese; plus a special – perhaps a tomato salad with nectarine gazpacho.

Minute steaks arrive with watercress and pepper sauce, begging for a side of frites and greens. And anyone looking for Porcine’s garlic mussels on toast will now find them exclusively downstairs. “That’s the big move – it’s a super crowd-favourite upstairs. I think Nik started doing a version of it at The Old Fitz, and it’s been on here since day-one Porcine.”

The cellar’s stocked with local, French and Jura drops, all from winemakers “that look after the land without it being crazy wild wine,” Fitzgerald says. “The majority of the producers are natural, but it doesn’t mean they’re funky or high in acid or crazy. They’re just made to taste in the conventional way with minimal intervention in the vineyards – it’s more tapered towards a cleaner palate, with a sprinkling of fun stuff.”

P&V’s liquor licence remains, so you can still take bottles to go. The two lists, Porcine’s 100 bottles and the Cave’s 50, are available at a reduced takeaway price – just ask.

Fitzgerald and Hill, who founded Porcine together with Harry Levy (who recently left the business), have nailed the co-habiting-venues thing. L’Avant Cave is your final destination, or it’s a pit stop before or after you take the stairs.

L’Avant Cave
268 Oxford Street, Paddington 

Hours:
Thu 4pm–10pm
Fri & Sat midday–11pm
Sun midday–7pm

@lavantcave