Today’s fresh food news includes the latest on the city’s small bar push, artful beers and a question about the best local produce.
Small but perfectly formed
The hotel industry said it wasn’t needed, but the State Government’s new small bar licence is proving to be a popular option for bar owners.
The new licence class, which cuts red tape for venues that can hold up to 120 people, came into being this year and it already looks like a new hospitality world is emerging in the city.
Little Miss Miami on Frome Street was the first to open, while Proof, in Anster Street at the other end of town, began trading earlier this month. The eponymous Peel Street bar, off Hindley St, is set to open soon.
Barbushka, also in Peel Street, has lodged a licence application and another East End bar is on the way: a venue called Mr Goodbar has applied for a licence to set up shop in Union Street off Rundle Street, just near the Chocolate Bean cafe.
The liquor licensing authorities tell Forager that another four applications have been received and a further seven are in the case management pipeline.
Interesting, too, is the fact that a number of existing venues are looking at the new licence as a better option.
Sturt Street’s Cantina Sociale has already made the jump, switching from a producer’s licence to a small venue licence.
In fact, Cantina ticks all the boxes for the kind of small bar we’d all like to see in Adelaide: it’s always lively, constantly feels like a secret discovery, and offers something genuinely unique, with unusual wine varieties served from the barrel, and great bar food, such as duck rillettes and Iberico jamon.
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Look out for the tiny sign stuck in an old wheelbarrow out the front.
F%&* Art – This is beer
Stay informed, daily
If you believe this freezing weather doesn’t suit beer, then a special tasting at The Wheatsheaf tonight may well change your mind.
The Wheaty, with strong claims to being Adelaide’s foremost beer connoisseurs’ pub, is showcasing kegs from Danish “gypsy” brewers To Øl (they’re known as gypsy or nomad brewers because they don’t have their own brewery – they make their products in other people’s joints).
The pub will have five of the Danish brews on tap, including a massive 11.3 per cent beer called “F***k Art This is Advertising” – definitely not a summer tipple. (Interestingly, one of To Øl’s similarly sweary labels was rejected by the US authorities for import, not because of the “F” word, but because it had a picture of a hamburger on the label. The label police were worried that drinkers might assume the beer had hamburgers in it.)
A variety of other styles will be on offer; all promise interesting and full-on flavours.
The kegs are tapped at the George St, Thebarton, pub from 6pm to 8pm, or as long as the beer lasts.
Export-quality produce at home
There’s plenty of great South Australian produce out there to buy and cook with at home.
Increasingly you can find local produce – marked as such – at supermarkets, fruit and veg shops, delis, the Central Market and the network of farmers’ markets.
And yet, some of our greatest produce – the stuff that’s valued most highly in overseas markets – often passes the average food lover by, simply because it all goes straight to export.
South Australian blue fin tuna is probably the best example: it’s arguably South Australia’s finest food product, but is almost never seen on local menus or in local shops. Export quality local oysters are also extremely hard to find. Both should be regulars on restaurant menus.
One export product that can be sourced, however, is the very high quality Mayura Station wagyu beef. And yet, there’s some more awareness-raising to do here as well.
Not enough people know that Mayura has a tasting room next door to its feedlot near Millicent – a cellar door for beef, if you like.
The tasting room is open for dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and guests can choose either formal dining or a seat at the kitchen bar where you can watch the chef at work. The latter is a good plan – you’ll want to know how best to cook your tender, buttery beef when you take away a pack for home.
Coincidentally, Mayura’s tasting room is receiving a special visit today and tomorrow from a group of Adelaide and Limestone Coast apprentices and chefs.
The group is visiting as part of a program run by the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology and Hospitality Group Training. The group will see how Mayura raise their beef, learn some specialised cooking techniques, and enjoy a dinner at the farm.
The program is an attempt to stem the high attrition rate of apprentice chefs.
Despite all the glamour presented by celebrity chefs and reality TV, working a commercial kitchen is a tough gig.
Sounds like a good move.
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