This week in The Forager: renovations transform an historic Hills pub; the Limestone Coast’s winning Savvy Blanc; smart bar tabs, Vietnamese food in vogue, and more.
New life for Crafers Inn
A menu that delivers and a wine list to rival that of the Royal Mail Hotel at Victoria’s Dunkeld was the plan for the Crafers Inn, the majestic but neglected pub found at the first exit to the Adelaide Hills off the South Eastern Freeway.
The Crafers Inn started trading in 1839 and is said to be one of the three oldest licences in South Australia. Its new owners – a group of Adelaide Hills locals – took over the hotel in November last year.
“The Crafers is walking distance from our home,” say owners Ed and Julie Peter. “We could see it had been pretty grand in the past – it reeked of history.
“Inside it looked like a disco movie from 1973, but we could see its bones were beautiful. It just needed some attention.”
The old hotel has kept trading while renovations have taken place. The lounge bar is complete, but the front bar is still undergoing work. The plaster has been taken off the walls to expose old stonework and highlight the original black marble fireplace and black painted plaster work around its unique arched windows. Persian carpets have been laid across polished boards and a new marble bar has been installed where a La Marzocco coffee machine now sits surrounded by glass cake stands with mini patisserie.
At the rear of the building, the pokies have been removed – “never to be reinstated” – and the dining room is set to be refurbished with luxurious leather booths with an enormous conservatory beyond.
“The conservatory will house a long open kitchen where patrons will be able to see all the kitchen activity,” says Julie. “It will have a brick paved floor and French-style ironwork, seating and lots of greenery.”
The menu and wine list is up and running, with chef Anna Kittel and sommelier Jonathan Hersey heading up the team behind the food and wine.
“With the food, the focus is on having nice solid portions with a very slight French country kitchen bias,” says Ed. “We will still have snittys, but there will be big hearty dishes such as cassoulet for those cold afternoons as well.
You might like
“Right now Anna is doing a slipper lobster curry which is deliciously decadent, and she is wizard with a steak. Her rabbit pie also sells out on a regular basis.”
Within six months, adds Ed, the plan is to have built a huge wine cellar – or “cave” – to accommodate a “monster” of a wine list.
“There will be a normal wine list, but the goal is to build a wine room that is one-third Adelaide Hills, one-third other Australian wine and one-third foreign.
“It will include a wide selection of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Italian and Spanish wines, for example, with labels such as Petrus, Romanee-Conti, Chateau Lafite – and the prices will be fairly inexpensive compared to what you pay retail.
“Already we have around 300 bottles downstairs with a bias towards French Burgundy and Savoie wines. It is an eclectic mix of Yarra Yering, Kaesler, Marestel, Jacques Cacheux and Romanee-Conti. The sommelier, Jonathan, is there from Wednesday to Sunday and he picks out what he wants and makes up a daily wine list.”
The Peters are hoping the Crafers Inn will accommodate everyone from “the tradies who have always been regulars, to the young kids who want to hang out over coffee in the afternoons to mums having coffee mornings after school drop-off, to family breakfasts on the weekends, right through to full wine snobs”.
“We want to keep it as a Hillsy pub that everyone is happy with,” says Julie.
The last phase of the development will be to turn the 14 dilapidated upstairs rooms into eight double suites for guest accommodation.
“The portico at the front will come off and the original ironwork will be reinstated as balconies to the upstairs rooms and the garden will get a full makeover.”
The rise of Sauvignon Blanc
A Sauvignon Blanc from a small boutique winery in the cool-climate Limestone Coast region of Mt Benson gained accolades at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show last week, winning Best Sauvignon Blanc.
The 2014 Norfolk Rise Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc is produced by winemaker Dan Berrigan for Kreglinger Wine Estates, a Belgian company which owns Norfolk Rise and also Pipers Brook and Ninth Island in Tasmania.
“Our Sauvignon Blanc is starting to get a bit of a pedigree,” says Berrigan, 31, who studied winemaking at Adelaide University’s Roseworthy Campus. “It also won gold at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show the last two years in a row and silver at the New Zealand International Wine Show two years running.
“You go into these shows hoping to win a gold, so when you win a trophy it’s the icing on the cake.”
So what makes Berrigan’s Sav Blanc stand apart from the 40 to 50 others entered in the Royal Adelaide Wine Show?
“I would say it’s a similar style to that from the Adelaide Hills,” he says. “2014 was another great vintage for us, and we had great intensity in our wines.
“A Sauvignon Blanc has got to have a good balance of flavours between those typical of the variety – tropical fruit and herbaceous – and you don’t want it to be too ripe or under-ripe.
“As long as the wine is free of faults, the judges then look for factors that separate it from the crowd, such as complexity and intensity – I find the 2014 Norfolk Rise has got really good flavour intensity.”
Berrigan adds that while medals are very good for consumer confidence and helping distributors to sell wines, generally there is a downward trend for Sauvignon Blanc.
Stay informed, daily
“I think a lot of people are jaded with the variety because of the New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs that flooded the market here – they’re so powerful,” he explains.
“Personally, I find I’m looking for something a little bit different and more complex. I encourage people to try Australian Sauvignon Blanc before writing off the variety.
“The Chain of Ponds Sauvignon Blanc from the Adelaide Hills is another good example of the Australian style.”
Smart bar tabs
Patrons at more than 30 Adelaide pubs can now use their smartphones instead of their wallets to pay for drinks and food.
An app called Clipp allows the consumer to open a bar tab and settle the bill on the app linked to their credit card or PayPal, thereby bypassing ATM and eftpos fees or the old system of handing over your credit card as security.
The product has been on the market for more than a year but the dynamic changed this week when it signed up ALH Hotels, the biggest pub owner in Australia. That move alone added 600 pubs and bars to Clipp’s list of 280.
The mobile payment system can be used in city pubs such as the Botanic Bar, Seven Stars, General Havelock, Arab Steed, as well as outer metro pubs the Golden Fleece Hotel and Birkenhead Tavern. The full list is on the app, linked to a “near you” map that guides users to participating hotels and bars.
Bruce Mathieson, CEO of the ALH Group, said the decision to integrate Clipp into many of Australia’s iconic pubs was logical given the benefits the technology provided to both venues and customers.
“From a business perspective, having our venues integrated with Clipp has already improved productivity in our venues. Staff behind the bar are spending less time handling card transactions and instead are able to serve customers faster and more efficiently.” – Kevin Naughton
CBD banh mi
A new Vietnamese food precinct has developed in and around James Place in the city, with an explosion of five banh mi bars within cooee.
Mr Viet, Miss Mai and Soonta in James Place, Banh Mi in Grenfell Street and Sit Lo a little further away in Bank Street are the latest additions to laneway food offerings in the city. These family-run establishments use traditional techniques and recipes to prepare small menus of Vietnamese street food offerings which are fresh, relatively healthy and very tasty.
Banh mi are Vietnamese bread rolls spread with aioli and filled with your choice of meat (cold, BBQ, roasted or a combination) or tofu, plus pickled vegetables, fresh cucumber, coriander and chilli, and finished with soy dressing.
Bun (vermicelli salad) is also offered. Bun is a Vietnamese salad of lettuce and rice vermicelli noodles, fresh mint, coriander, cucumber and chilli, pickled vegetables and a Vietnamese fish sauce dressing. The noodles are generally substituted with shredded cabbage in carb-free versions.
Goi cuon (rice paper rolls stuffed with ingredients such as prawns, pork, tofu, mint, Thai basil, coriander, cucumber, lettuce and rice vermicelli noodles) and deep-fried spring rolls with dipping sauces are other tasty offerings.
And, of course, there is pho (pronounced “fur”) – a Vietnamese noodle soup consisting of highly flavoured and fragrant broth, flat rice noodles called banh pho, fresh herbs and tender meat.
Ca phe sua da is another specialty – delicious Vietnamese filtered coffee poured over condensed milk and ice.
Events
Fork on the Road – October 10
Fork is returning to Victoria Square with its Movie in the Square night on Friday from 5pm. More than 30 food vendors will be located in Victoria Square and there will be drinks available from the Fork bar from Arete, Head in the Clouds, Swell Brewing and Sidewood Cider. There will be a range of children’s activities, and the free outdoor movie shown by Splash Adelaide and the Adelaide City Council – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – starts at 8pm. More information can be found here.
Prancing Pony’s A Fiery Affair – October 18
Campfires, marshmallow toasting, hearty local food, local wine and cider, and award-winning unfiltered fire-brewed beers will be on offer at Prancing Pony Brewery at Mt Barker from 2pm. There will also be live music from 4pm and fire dancers from dusk. Get there early to get a great seat. Information and bookings can be made here.
Vale Cru – October 19
The Vale Cru Victory Hotel Annual Tasting on October 19 is a chance to taste more than 50 different premium, small-batch wines from 15 of McLaren Vale’s boutique winemakers. You can also meet the makers, enjoy food and entertainment, and keep an eye out for a few extra special guests. More information can be found here.
Champagne masterclass – November 15
With Global Champagne Day (October 24, 2014) and the spring racing season almost upon us, French champagne corks will be popping across the nation. If you want to sharpen up your Champagne intelligence in readiness, Melbourne Champagne expert The Champagne Dame (Kyla Kirkpatrick) is holding one of her “Time” master-classes in Adelaide on November 15 at Celsius Restaurant and Bar.
The luxury wine-tasting event and seminar – Time: The Evolution of Champagne – will compare seven different wines from France’s famous Champagne region, to show how these wines have changed over time. Cost is $159 per person. Information and bookings can be found here.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
