Melbourne Patron

Want Melbourne Patron blog posts delivered straight to your inbox? Click the "Subscribe" button at the top of this page and follow the simple instructions. Magic! Bistro Gitan Elegant French in friendly refined surroundings I'd heard the name Jacques Reymond since moving to Melbourne ten years ago, and always assumed I'd eat at one of his restaurants. He closed his solo doors in 2014 before I got around to it, but along with L'Hotel Gitan in Prahran, he remains involved with  Bistro Gitan (52 Toorak Road West, South Yarra), jointly operated by three of his children. Ever since a soul-changing meal in the south of France with my family on my first trip to Europe, I have enjoyed partaking in a decent bit of French food. I was particularly looking forward to the dinner date my partner had booked, knowing the restaurant's location opposite Fawkner Park in the elegant, leafy part of South Yarra would only add to its feel of an exclusive treat. ...

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart Popular Malaysian Sweet Tart Inspired by Japanese Cheese   You can't work in hospitality or be a food blogger and NOT have heard about the Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart . Even if you're just a regular Joe Blow, they would have been hard to avoid on social media. I'm not sure exactly how the craze started, but suddenly they were EVERYWHERE - little yellow rounds of promise. Like any good writer (!), I hot-legged it to the new Melbourne Central HBCT venue soon after its opening to try and obtain one of the cult-followed baked items, and alas, my first attempt was futile. (I stood in the queue for about 10 minutes, with over an hour left until the store's official closing time, only to see the person three ahead of me in the queue buy the last tart. So. Much. Sad.) My second attempt was better; also towards the end of the day - on a Friday, no less, when I would have thought queues for anything self-indulgent would have extended round ...

Everyone likes cheese, right? OK, except maybe the lactose intolerant, and some people are averse to blue cheese. I love it all. Aside from one bad experience when I ate far too much camembert one Christmas and was subsequently quite ill, I will usually happily eat ALL the cheese, all the time. And yes, I am aware it's not terribly healthy, but pffff, I don't care (much), and yes, I am also aware there is a old wives' tale that cheese gives you crazy dreams... Awesome! Bring it on. Cheese counter at Milk the Cow St Kilda In 2012, St Kilda was all abuzz with the opening of Milk the Cow  (157 Fitzroy St, St Kilda), a 'licenced fromagerie' - which I take to mean 'cheese shop that sells alcohol'... unless you need some kind of special licence to sell cheese? (Apart from unpasteurised cheese - which I'm pretty sure is illegal - I don't think you do.) Intriguing. A bar that sells cheese? Or a cheese shop that lets you drink? Eat/drink in, or out?...

Despite still being new-ish to the South Yarra area, I'd already walked past A25 Pizzeria (720 Chapel Street, South Yarra) multiple times before actually getting around to trying it. (I find decent Chapel Street venues a bit few and far between, so tend to dine out in other areas instead.) Over the Easter weekend, a friend from interstate stayed with me. When she landed, we were both starving - where was there wine and tasty food within walking distance, that was not likely to be too noisy or jam-packed? Hey, let's try this place I've been meaning to check out... A25 is on the northern end of Chapel Street, a few minutes' walk from Toorak Road. Named for a freeway between Rome and Pescera, it is a long, thin venue (along the street front, not perpendicular to it), with indoor and outdoor seating, amply cocooned by clear plastic shades and heated. The initial impression is clean and bold: white, black and blonde-wood hard surfaces and occasional splashes of green ...

There are some things you hear of and immediately think, 'Only in Melbourne!' Jafflechutes are one such thing. ...Jafflechutes, you say? What on earth are jafflechutes?! Well. Have you heard of jaffles? The toasted sandwiches that you make using an electric sandwich maker that squashes the sandwich's edges together, sculpts it so it kinda looks like a moulded cake, makes the outside all nice and toasty and crusty, and melts the cheese inside, so you end up with a hot, gooey, salty, hand-held piece of deliciousness? Now marry that with a parachute, and you have a jafflechute. Someone in this world not only had the amazing idea that a toasted sandwich could be thrown out a window attached to a parachute so it would float it down to its recipient, but then they actually put it into action. The someone was actually two people, Adam Grant and David McDonald, and the idea was born from Grant coming home one night having forgotten his keys. They were thrown down...