Pub: Barkers Wine Bar
Where: 84 Barkers Rd., Hawthorn
Phone: 9853 6638
Date: 19 February 2010
Score: 14.6/20
Internet: www.barkerswinebar.com.au

Let’s crank up the stereotype-gram here. Wine bar – When you hear those words what do you think? A group of overly earnest men and women, (men with goatees/skivvies, ladies with a gold chain on the rests of their glasses) discussing how The Times Cryptic doesn’t do it for them anymore or what’s on Radio National?

For me, the expression is a total turn off like “X games” sports or Competitive Dancing on the tele.

Mercifully Barkers Wine Bar doesn’t have such pretence, but it has gone out of its way to burn off its past – the much loved Beehive Hotel and hence the new name.

To my eye it is a remodelled version of this eastern suburban institution, and though the Tab is gone and the makeover obvious when you step in, it retains the charm of the front bar and the bistro is, well, a bistro much like any found in any modern pub.

It is popular, (very popular) and on arrival, mine hostess cheerfully immediately informed us that we would be dining in the front bar today. Hmmm, was my immediate reaction, but I enjoyed the atmosphere there.

Think wine bar, think sedate; not here, a good, loud vibe like any other pub doing a good trade on Fridays.

The successful Sovereign Hotel team (Taxi/Transport) has revived the Beehive and the offer matches its ambitions. The beer, like so many “gastro” pubs has a range available on tap but I like Carlton Draught and the taste confirmed that the care of their draught is as important as their wine list.

I continue to think I am in an upmarket pub, rather than a wine bar.

Menus are presented, orders taken and drinks brought to the table. Shaw and Smith SavBlanc ($44) is chosen to match the Fish and Chips ($26). S&S is one the expert Australian producers of this most popular varietal and I thought the price – big by pub standards, small by wine bar – was fair. Simply it is a fail-safe option at the top end.

The Fish and Chips excelled.

Teamed with a small bowl of mushy peas (the British influence continues in pubs), 3 juicy, fat, pale ale battered fillets of Rockling and shoestring fries was a fabulous meal, and putting on the pub-hat again, was only a couple of dollars more than the standard hake and birds-eyes.

Steak was the other choice – 300g Porterhouse, chips, salad, béarnaise at $34.

The increasing trend of serving the steak on a board completed the visuals as did the stacking of the fat chips (about 8) in an arrangement that would please the Mathematical Association of Victoria.

{Is there a secret competition between chefs in Melbourne for the most ornate decoration of chips on a plate?}
For the record the steak was well sourced, very tasty, cooked perfectly. Again, in pubs at least, steaks of a good quality are heading into the $30s.

Barker’s Wine bar has a website, and while it sets out its menu, little else is revealed. I like what they are doing there; it is a good story, so why not sell it harder? Do they run Trebbiano and Trivia on Tuesdays??

Further work is taking place in what (I think) was the old Beehive bottle shop parallel to Church St, which may specialise in Greek cuisine, again adding another layer to the Barkers offer.

If you look at it from the POV of being the latest in a line of “gastropubs”, then it compares favourably and is well worth a visit.

But you can’t; it is, as I was told, a wine bar.

Tony's Pub Of The Week 2010

Tony Leonard is back again this year providing readers with reviews from all the pubs he visits on the Neil Mitchell program every Friday after 11:30am. Your home for all of the reviews - 3AW.com.au/pub2010. View all the reviews by clicking on Tony's image on the right.