Pop up Sydney dinners
Chefs are borrowing premises and holding short-run restaurant nights to showcase their skills. Myffy Rigby checks out the new ephemeral dining craze.
Don't be tempted to lump these pop-up dinners in with the "secret" restaurant scene talked about in Melbourne a lot a couple of years ago. For one thing, that was something of a tedious media beat-up, more blogged about than actually enjoyed; and for another, this isn't secret exactly, just small. And people are lapping it up.
Hamish and Tama
@ Vini, Surry Hills
(hamishandtama.food@gmail.com). $55pp.
Think of it kind of like the equivalent of an off-Broadway run for restaurants. For the last few weeks Hamish Ingham and O Tama Carey have rocked up to Vini, one of Surry Hills' hipper trattorias, on the Sunday it normally closes, and run a sort of impromptu pop-up diner of their own. Word of mouth is their only marketing and bookings are made via an email address; you show up on your elected Sunday (they're running roughly one a fortnight at present) and for a set $55 you get four or so courses, served family-style to share. The beer and wine you buy from the not-inconsiderable Vini blackboard list.
Carey and Ingham (a recipient of the Josephine Pignolet award for talented young chefs) come from the kitchen of Billy Kwong, where Ingham, who cooks at The Bellevue Hotel in Paddington, ran the kitchen for many years. The food they're doing is neither Kwong Chinese nor Vini Italian, but based wholly and solely on what they can pick up at the markets on the day: a salad of bottle squid and zucchini flowers, made zingy with mint and sorrel, say. The main course might be something along the lines of the roast beef with tarragon, garlic, beetroot, radicchio, thyme, lettuce and corn. And dessert is a highlight, if the filo tart filled with figs, hazelnut and "mostly organic" ricotta is any guide.
Carey and Ingham talk about their Sunday sessions as a kind of rehearsal for the restaurant they'll eventually open. For now, it's a damned fine offer and a fun, slightly unusual night out.
Hugh Wennerbom, Dinners at Chippers
@ Cafe Giulia, Chippendale
(hugh.wennerbom@bigpond.com). $55pp
Local providore Hugh Wennerbom is running farm-to-plate dinners focusing on fresh local produce out of Chippendale's Cafe Giulia. Originally, Wennerbom's dinners were held at the Bronte Bowlo - families and big groups would turn up, there'd be a big screen playing Finding Nemo for the kids and big sharing plates of roast chook, charcuterie and pasta would come out. You'd buy your wine and beer from the bowlo's bar.
At Café Giulia, it's a little more subdued. You bring your own wine and everyone sits in the courtyard on nice evenings. The menu changes every night, depending on what Hugh's got growing on the farm or has picked from the market. The food's fresh, simple and very much for sharing: fat green olives and sourdough to start, say, followed by kingfish tartare with a tiny dice of raw fennel, cucumber, radish, capers and ocean trout roe, roast Murray Grey beef with roast capsicum and confit garlic. Soft French cheeses are served with currant grapes and crackers and to finish, Mrs Wennerbom makes a cracker blackberry and chocolate slice. It's close to the Abercrombie, too - perfect for a post-prandial schooner.
Michael Fantuz
@ Table for 20, Surry Hills
$60pp
Michael Fantuz originally set up Table for 20 as a moveable feast, but as the dinners gained momentum, he settled on Crown Street in Surry Hills. Start with a cocktail or Italian beer upstairs Sticky Bar (they're also doing weekly $15 roasts up there). The building Fantuz operates out of is owned by Hope Street, a mission helping people around the local neighbourhood. Ten per cent of the takings from every night goes straight to the charity.
Each night you'll be served three courses that could be anything from prosciutto and hunks of good parmesan to roast fish or chook and to finish, Fantuz's mum's homemade tirimisu and limoncello. Throughout the meal you'll be serenaded by acoustic guitar playing everything from Missy Higgins to Crowded House and the Beatles. Myffy Rigby and Lee Slims
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