Venue: Bridge Inn Hotel
Where: 1425 Plenty rd., Mernda
Phone: 9717 3404
Date: 14 August 2009
Score: 12

You have the seen the ads on TV 1000 times before.

Frustrated mother, agitated father asking the one question that even the omniscient Shaolin monks from ‘Kung Fu’ would struggle to come up with an answer;

Where can I find a tradie?? And at this time of day??

Well brethren, salvation is at hand, although you will have to take the arduous trip up Plenty Rd, through Mill Park, Sth Morang and new estates like Lauirma, Riverdale and Hawkstowe to the Bridge Inn Mernda.

There, trapped in some 70’s time warp were carpenters, sparkies, painters, just hangin’ round the bar, havin’ a cheap countery, and talkin’ about stuff that blokes talk about.

The Bridge Inn, brick facade, bits tacked on here and there, lurches as some King Canute over Plenty rd vainly defying the suburban tide.

In keeping with the past, they don’t have a Red-Hill-type-artisans-produce market; they have a good ol’ trash and treasure each Monday. Trash always needed.

Sadly, the sprawl is a kilometre or so down the road, with another suburb/estate being built at breathtaking speed, on a thoroughfare that is incapable of carrying any extra people.

But to the pub. It remains daggy, for now. Lino on the floor, bar meals all well inside $20, no pokies (yet) and the walls adorned by the feats of some harness horses: so befitting it is the standard, not thoroughbred taking pride of place here.

A dining room out the back, again in some time warped ladies lounge fit-out and that’s pretty much it. Again daggy, out-of-time, but somehow endearing. There is a nice beer garden out the back.

Then you hear that the pub was bought for $6million, with another $15 or so to be spent on it. In humble semi rural, soon to be another suburb Mernda!!

Food is on the bar blackboard, or printed sheet in the dining room. The bar saves you around $1 per plate. One of the items was a Tas steak - $16. I asked, thinking the meat was sourced from Tasmania and therefore its name. No, they named it after one of the drinkers and comes with an egg.

Also the wine list is a relic of the past where 4 brands are listed, including “Cask wine”. I haven’t seen it on any menu, so defiantly public, in 10 years. But there is a bargain.

Tried was (and in the PB to save $3);

•    Main size garlic prawns @$17. Good sized, sweet smelling prawns, (around 8) on a bed of rice with salad,
•    Porterhouse, Mushroom Sauce C&S - $14. Decent slab of meat, neatly done,
•    Grilled pork chops (2 and very meaty), plum sauce and C&S. Filling feed, no problems. Cost $15.

Washed down with this mid-teened feast was a bottle of Houghton Sem SavBlanc (passed on the cask!!). Cost $16. Given that its RRP is about $13, this is the smallest mark-up I have seen.

Ok, the good folk of Gourmet Traveller won’t pop in, but in its own way, it is a safe haven, place of community that is clearly loved by the locals and run by a couple of blokes who know what the punters want.

Who knows what it will look in the next 12-24 months but it won’t be the same and that’s a pity as no other pub, with the proximity to town, looks like this one.

I hope whoever takes it over keeps the current lessees Gus and Neil on board. Just a couple of blokes, talkin’ bloke stuff with other blokes, whose names are Vinnie, Frankie and Charlie (I think!!).

3AW Pub Of The Week 2009

3AW Pub Of The Week is back - and better than ever - on 3AW.com.au. Take the tour through Victoria's best and worst pubs with our expert, Tony Leonard. Click on the image to be taken to the Pub Of The Week directory.