Pub:                       Village Belle Hotel
Where:                 202 Barkly St., St. Kilda
Phone:                 9534 2200
Date:                     10 February 2012
Score:                   13/20
Internet:              www.villagebelle.com.au

OVERVIEW:

Much loved hotel, nearing the intersection of Barkly/Ackland,  this wonderful old warhorse is the genuine “St.Kilda experience” when it comes to pubs.

Deceptively large, it is a first time visit for me – ever.  The pub seems to go at odd angles with Pokies/Tab up one end,  1970’ old world bistro at the other  parallel to Barkly St, with a Star Wars pinball and pool tables in between.  It is also very easy gather a quiet moment to yourself.

Throughout the day, a constant stream of mainly older St.Kilda residents were there, and in an absolute tick for the pub, the background music was at a sensible level.

It seemed like everyone knew each other, so the atmosphere is good and to complete the picture, at least 3 different  styles of carpet adorned the floorboards.

Food is fairly priced and plentiful, wine list provided a nice read and point of difference , but the beer was not at its best.  I will explain later.

PRICES:

Entrees:               Not really
Mains:                  $20, fully plated, bar steaks
Desserts:             $7.5
Wine:                    $32

COMMENTS:

On my visit, everything (bar the beer)  worked.  The plusses (many) are;
 it is a place of community, it is fairly priced, the meals are large and beautifully written  out on a blackboard, the wine list has a neat point of difference and the staff was attentive.

My beer missed.  Alarm bells went off when the bloke behind the jump starts jigging the pot up and down.  Sure there is a head on it when it is filled, but after a couple of seconds it is flat and while drinkable enough, there was a slight aftertaste. Bad day perhaps?

No entrees to speak off – garlic bread, wedges etc., but if you like a big parma, you can choose from 5 around $20.  All meals come with chips/salad or vegetables.

TRIED:

- Cheesy gralic bread - $4.9.  big pieces, plenty of the toppings

- 300g Porterhouse with chips and salad with a pepper sauce - $27.9.  Pub uses Cape Grim and/or 1824 beef; both are respected names.  Cooked MR as asked, this was good shopping,

- Chicken “Mignon” , mushroom sauce, mash and seasonal vegetables.  Giant breast, wrapped in bacon, very tasty and filling – a good pub meal,

- Lenton Brae Cab/Merlot - $34. Boutique winery from WA. Nice balance between the two grapes, a little young (2010) but easy drinking.  Pub has taken care and is reasonable with its wine prices.

SUMMARY:

The pub, wit its multi coloured pub carpet has that warm, well worn feel, found too rarely in pubs nowadays. Save for the beer, it was a worthwhile trip, and I suspect the squirt is normally top  notch so prepared to forgive.  I liked my couple of hours there.

As I was leaving, a song, befitting the suburb came up on the video.  Lola, Ray Davies classic with the Kinks.   If there was ever a list of songs for suburbs, surely this is St. Kilda’a anthem;

“I never understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man”.

Pub:                       North Fitzroy Star
Where:                 32 St.Georges Rd Sth., North Fitzroy
Phone:                 9482 6484
Date:                     3 February 2012
Score:                   14/20
Internet:              www.northfitzroystar.com.au

OVERVIEW:

Compact, labrythine old boozer, tucked away in the shadows of the San Remo Ballroom in Nicholson St., the North Fitzroy Star (NFS) does a fabulous job of being a place of local community and comfort, while banging out neat pub grub at very fair prices in 2012.

The pub’s pedigree ensures it shines.  My recollection tells me when it went from Lord Jim’s to the NFS, sisters Patricia and (the late add loved Mietta O’Donnell) set it up and everything from the staff’s understated can do attitude to the vibe created, (think Austin Powers groovy flat) and it works.

While no fan of street dining, the public bar was too warm - the bistro wasn’t – plenty of punters on a stinking hot Sunday were happy to mix with the array of 2001 Fords and Holdens parked nearby.

Like many of its inner northern brethren, dining and drinking doesn’t kick in till later in the day and week, so check the website**

**( Just a minor slap on wrist for NFS – not enough info on website – there’s a good story to tell – TELL IT!)

PRICES:

Entrees:               $13
Mains:                  $25
Desserts:             $9
Wine:                    $34

COMMENTS:

Short and sweet as far as beer, wine and food options go, and that’s fine.  Very few believe less is more but here they do.

Two choices – NFS Draught (coming from the Geelong Brewery) and Coopers Pale.  Latter tried, and even though it may be athestically the ugliest looking drink on the planet, those Cooper boys know how to brew an australian legend. Presentation was great;  taste even better.

Thedining room is unique in Melbourne Pub life but it works with its mix of orange and purple walls, prints hanging from the wall and small, discreet rooms for a quiet meal.  Absolute plus is that it is female friendly.

Four entrees, including polenta with mushroom and pecorino (12.5), six mains including tofu with bok choy and hoisin (18) and four desserts round out an ever-changing menu.

Order at bar (hmmm), brought to the table and with complimentary turkish bread and  water supplied from a nearby communal table and you are at ease very quickly.

TRIED:

- Linguine with proscuitto, cheery tomato, chilli, garlic and olive oil - $17.5. Top notch, good flavours, generous serve,  fair price and the use of cherry tomatoes, rather than a tomato sauce was a winner,

- Crispy Barramundi, sweet poato mash, greens  with a chilli/lime dressing - $26. More crisp-ish than crisy, a good dish from THE omnipresent fish on pub tables.   Dressing worked well with the barra. No faults,

- Jock’s ice cream - $3.5/scoop.  1 x Vanilla and 1x Rasperry.  I know I have quoted him before but  in the words of the late and great Randy “Macho man” Savage…   ‘ooh yeah’!

- Organic vanilla yoghurt  lemon curd and fruit salad.  I’ll take her word for it – she said it was delicious - $9

-Mount Vernon Pinot Gris - $36.   What a nice bottle from Marlborough NZ, more known for the increasingly god awful Sav Blanc than PG, but I was impressed.

SUMMARY:

Small pubs, owner operator – you have to love them.  No horses or machines, just a friendly inner northern suburban pub, serving good food and drink with a smile.

I just wish they would sell themselves more but maybe they don’t want to, or need to.

More power to them.

Welcome again as another year kicks in and the search for Victoria’s best pub in 2012 is on.  As always, the segment goes to air, around 1140am, with Neil Mitchell each Friday.  This is my 17^th year of presenting the segment and with plenty of changes taking place in pubs, there will be some revisited, some first timers.

Email or blogs, send them in.  All comments/criticisms welcome and will be answered by me.  The address for emails is tleonard@3aw.com.au.  Space for blog comments appear at the end of the review.

I will still mark out of 20, but as I point out continually, it is an inexact science with me and what I like you may not:  and vice versa. My numbers will be reflected in increments of point 5.  No more 13.75 – what was I thinking.

The elements of having a great offer don’t change and successful, well patronised pubs have the basics set out; food, beer, wine, staff, cleanliness.  It all equals hospitality.  But to answer a point that was raised in a blog about this award being the “fine dining award” rather than a pub award, please read on.

What sets the better apart from the run of the mill is their menu, both food and drink and if there is value in the overall offer.  A lot of Melbourne pubs run to a formula and what you get in one suburb is pretty much what you get in another.  It doesn’t make them less worthy, it is just hard to distinguish between one from the other.

What every pub must have is a {front/back} bar that is comfortable, appealing to men and women, serving terrific draught beer and somewhere to catch up with friends or have a quiet moment to yourself.  And everyone of the preceding 16 pub of the year winners has had those basics.

I know it is fraught with danger trying to pick a mark of what constitutes “average” pricing, but the facts are that costs are skyrocketing and contrary to public belief, pubs aren’t immune from this.  

Working on a full plate, i.e., chips/salad// vegetable included, a good, clever main will be around $28-32, entrée $13ish and a reasonable bottle of wine $33-40.  (You are paying full whack in a dining room).  You’ll get a bargain and you’ll pay more; it depends on the venue, but, if you are paying more make sure there is table service, linen/ butchers paper, chilled water at the table and some bread.

As for a pot, just make sure it tastes and smells fine.  If you are going to have a couple, order from different taps to see if there is consistency in appearance and taste.  $4.30 is about the mark at the start of 2012.

And as for personal preference, let’s have less of;

- Ridiculously loud/intrusive background music in daylight hours

- Salt and pepper calamari

- Commercially made pizza bases (they taste like cardboard) 

- The usual 3 suspects in the “trio of dips”

- Beer only available in schooners – a disturbing, emerging trend sadly

And more of;

- Managers in corporate pubs getting to meet your patrons and shouting one!!

- A genuine bargain in the wine list from a little known supplier

- And following on, a beer offer from a craft supplier

- Bread – free of charge with every main meal

- Allowing the galley to do a dessert – from scratch.

*Scroll down and watch Tony Leonard and Neil Mitchell crown the Pub of the Year*

TONY'S COMPLETE LIST OF PUB REVIEWS 2011

Overview:

The Year:

In 2011, a total of 39 pubs were reviewed, of which 26 fell between a 13-14.9, with 6 under 13 and 7 at a score of 15 or above. Mercifully, not one fell under 12, which really means (unless there is gaming or a TAB supporting the bottom line), it is a modern day miracle how the business is still running in my opinion.

I have my pet irritations, none greater than staff putting the music too loud for their entertainment.  If you don’t want to be in hospitality, get out, but if anyone thinks that excessively loud music is a value add (at lunch time at least) then you are delusional.

Happy to report that the quality of draught beer, vital to the bottom line, has improved, but at prices nudging $4.50/pot, then if you want that extra sell, make sure it is in A1 condition. There is nothing more damaging to a pub, than to walk in and see everyone drinking stubbies; the message sent from that visual is a killer.

I would like to offer the following bouquets before the announcement of Melbourne’s best for 2011:

BEST FRONT OF HOUSE:

Matt, Lamaro’s.

This is how it is done – friendly, knowledgeable, enthusiastic with a memory for people’s name, perhaps the hardest skill to master in hospitality.  If you are thinking of a career in this, go and look at this bloke goes through his paces.  Excellent.

BEST DRAUGHT:

Malvern Hotel

Just a superb presentation; glasses, taste, head, fresh.  Beautiful.

HALL OF FAME:

O’Connells, Sth Melbourne.

After a few years’ absence, I went back to O’Connells. I know pubs go in and out of fashion, and maybe O’Connell’s was victim of such a trend, but I happily report that one of the original trendsetters of the better food and drink push remains one of our best.

An absolute pub icon of Melbourne.

DEBORTOLI PUB OF THE YEAR – 2011

In determining the best pub, each year the basics remain a constant.  In brief, clean premises, great draught beer, smart, engaging, knowledgeable staff, exciting food and wine offers, all tied in with a sense of community and comfort and hospitality, the foundations on which pubs were established.

My three contenders are;

- Town Hall Hotel, Fitzroy.

- Lincoln Hotel  Carlton

- Malvern Hotel, Malvern.

All three easily meet my criteria of what is the best in Pubs: all three re-affirm Melbourne’s status as Australia’s capital when it comes to having the complete package when it comes to Pubs.

WINNER

The DeBortoli Pub of the year for 2011 is....

THE LINCOLN HOTEL IN CARLTON

Thank you to Neil all of the contributors throughout 2011 and I look forward to going again for a 17th time in 2012

DEBORTOLI PUBS OF MONTH – 3rd QUARTER – 2011

The following 3 pubs are given the gong for the DeBortoli Pub of the Month for September, October and November.  What is pleasing is that two of the three are “new boys” and look to be trading well, while having totally diverse offers.

My final observation for 2011 again revolves around the quality of beer and for a change, it’s good news. The standard of draught was much better, especially the way that the glassware is being treated. To use a poker analogy (been watching too much texas hold’em), there are 2 tells if your local is looking after their glassware and, by extension, you. These are;

1. Head is retained after pouring and allowed to rest.
2. After a mouthful, the lace inside the glass is retained and has such a consistency where a white ring appears (basically how much you guzzled with your last sip!).

Finally, pubs and pizza are a marriage in 2011 and near enough all pubs have a pizza or 6 on the menu.  The reasons are simple, but basically they represent a great profit centre to the business.  No issue if they are made from scratch, have good ingredients with a thin, doughy, base. But if your local is buying a commercial base and dressing it up, then at around $18 you are being robbed.  You wouldn’t pay for it at your local Fat Tony’s, Big Momma’s, Nonna’s Casalinga, Il, La or Da’s  Pizzeria in your suburb; why would you at a pub?

And one more thing: never order a lamb pizza, in any way shape or form. Only the pub risotto remains more deadly.

September Best: Platform 28 Hotel, Docklands

Relative new boy in new area, but such is Platform 28’s progress that the AHA saw fit to award it their metropolitan Pub of the Year 2011.

Definitely an all things to all people, the pub uses the space from the converted warehouse beautifully and whether it is a drink with work colleagues or a quiet meal in its atrium, P28 delivers.

Operating for 18 months, look for it to be the dominant player amongst other pubs in that precinct.

Recommend: Salt and pepper squid, Thai Chilli jam - $14.

October Best:  Malvern Hotel

Top three for 2011 and October’s best. I will continue to bang on about pubs that are run by people with experience and the Burke’s, winners of pub of the year in 2005 at the Brandon, have come to the Malvern and taken it to another level.  Beer is fabulous, menu has a point of difference as does the wine list, but the common theme that the best pubs have, is here in spades: hospitality.

Simply it is a great pub, (yes you will pay a bit more) that again underlines how well Melbourne does the “pub thing” compared to other states.

Recommend:   Meat Lover’s platter - $38, but make sure you share.

November Best:  Post Office Hotel, Coburg

Brought to life some 18 months ago, the Post Office has become a place of comfort and community in “rather daggy, but starting to become trendy” Coburg.

Good on the owners for putting their money in and the results are starting to show. Right mix of modern and retro, the pub focuses on the basics of good beer and food with a point of difference and their Sunday roasts, heavily mid-eastern influenced, are a wonderful way to enjoy a lazy afternoon before the music kicks in.

I like the POH very much.

Recommended :  Sunday Roast - $25.