There are, however, some shining lights in Melbourne’s culinary scene. Restaurants that are including local beers on their list. Putting some thought into the beers they include and giving beer drinkers something to be excited about, but they are few and far between.  Being a beer geek, I do admittedly have higher (read: snootier) expectations and am more likely to be disappointed when I don’t see a Moon Dog Black Lung or a Red Hill Hop Harvest on the menu, but I don’t think beer drinkers can continue to be an afterthought. There are a few reasons why I think this.

Now that Fosters is more than likely to be under foreign ownership, it’s a good time for both restaurants and bars to show some local pride. Food and wine menus are often fiercely proud of their local credentials. They will proudly say the cheese is from Warnambool and the wine is from the Barossa.  The same care and pride is rarely put into a beer list (many places don’t even have one. Recently we sat at a ‘hot’ new inner city pasta place. Home made pasta, great wine list, no mention of beer. Turns out they had a couple of decent beers in bottles, but of course they weren’t on any  menu and the waiter did not know what they had… maybe they assume beer drinkers are psychic?). Sell your beer like you do your wine. “Made with locally grown hops, by a small brewery that actually gives a shit about what it’s beer tastes like. The brewery is so small it’s one guy called Brian* that lives down the road, he’s probably having a beer at the bar right now. That’s how fucking local we are”.

Australians are strange in the sense that many people will say it’s a beer drinking nation, while also talking about how everyone needs to support local companies from the evils of importation, but no one seems to combine the two.  It makes no sense. Sit in a pub with some locals and they are more than happy to bitch about the economy and how no one sticks up for the little guy and foreign ownership is ruining Australia… while knocking back big brewery beer. Meanwhile, local craft brewers get slugged with a 25% tax on their income just because they aren’t big enough.  Why isn’t A Current Affair doing one of their ‘investigations’ on the ‘small brewery battlers being bullied by the big guys’.

On the recent Fosters takeover, Dick Smith said “”My belief is we should try to retain as much of our wealth in Australian hands. Anything good will be sold off. We’ll own nothing.”  (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/bn-fosters-bid-from-sabmiller-leaves-bitter-taste/story-e6frg8zx-1226079564027). Why aren’t Dick Smith and Harvey Norman standing up for small brewers? Particularly after Harvey Norman’s horrific PR disaster recently, attacking people buying goods online… getting behind small beer is a pretty good way to get the punters back onside while being able to continue to crap on about buying Australian in order to get free publicity on Channel 9.

The recent Foster’s takeover talks, are however something of a blessing for small breweries. They can use this as an opportunity to really push their local credentials. This is leverage to get the fickle public onside and make some noise about their case. I know small brewers have enough on their plate as it is, they don’t have the million dollar backing for ad campaigns… instead they actually have to worry about making good product and paying 25% tax on sales profits (did I mention that? I feel it needs mentioning again).  Fans and market leading restaurants do need to play a part in this, and while you’ll find no more avid bunch than craft beer drinkers, it is also heartening to see some market leading restaurants getting on board with decent beer.

You can get a Bridge Road Saison at the Press Club. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to find a Hitachino Nest XH at Izakaya Den, which is not a local beer, but a great Japanese beer for probably the coolest Japanese restaurant in Melbourne. You can have a Holgate Pilsner with your $115 steak at Rockpool (sure it’s right underneath Crown Lager on the menu, but you got to know you market and the kind of person that is spending that much on a steak, may not be wondering why they can’t have a Holgate Temptress for desert). Cutler & Co, while I was disappointed with the meal, is one of the top restaurants in Melbourne and carry some top craft beer to match. When I visited they had an Emersons Bookbinder… now I look at their menu and see they no longer have that, but carry the father of new world craft beer, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and some local favourites, like a Bridge Road or a Mountain Goat. MoVida has a Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, probably the best beer to ever come out of Australia (it also has a Bridge Road IPA… for a small brewery from Beechworth they are doing damned well in this space aren’t they?… I even spotted their Porter on the menu at Neil Perry’s ‘The Waiting Room’ at Crown. They are doing something right)

While these examples could all be looked at as positives for craft beer, and they definitely are, they should also be looked at as a guide for other restaurants in Melbourne. That is a list of market leaders in Melbourne’s crowded dining scene – Restaurants that set the standard for different reasons. Restaurants around Melbourne need to take note of these changes happening at the top and realise that not only do customers want a choice, but in some cases (mine), it may win or lose you custom; while supporting a growing local industry making a high quality product. If you run a restaurant and wouldn’t serve plain white bread in your restaurant, then you really should put some thought into your beer. List it on a menu, do a little research, talk to a few punters, talk to some brewers. Take some pride in what is being served to your customers.

http://fairgocraftbeer.com.au/

Edit: Some thoughts from ‘Beer Snob’ about BYO restaurants and beer: http://coldale.net/snobblog/2011/06/08/byo-license-and-beer/

*actually if he’s from Melbourne and involved in beer, then he’s probably called James. What the hell is with that?

The Basics

Crafty Pint has a good run down of the basics, that can be found here. Instead of me rehashing what has been said, go read that before continuing.

How does it look?

Black. It feels very dark, with mostly black paint and wood furniture. The striking (and strangely erotic) picture of a skinned rabbit above the bar really tells you that this place doesn’t fuck around. It’s a ballsy move and one that all three of us decided that we liked.

How does it taste?

Lady Ale began the evening with a “Beer Flight”, which consisted of 3 tastes of wheat beer (the style changes monthly). Beer manager (James) came out and poured each taste while explaining why he chose each for the “flight” and gave a background to the style of beer as well as each individual beer.

My brother and I began with a Brew Dog 5am Saint, which is on draught.

We then moved on to many other beers throughout the evening, guided by James who regularly stopped by to ask how we were going or to answer any questions we had. At the end of the night we felt like we had been on an amazing beer journey and, taking James’ advice, we shared a Brew Dog Tokyo.  This beer is amazing and I plan on picking some up in the near future for a proper review, but what I will say now is; holy shit.

Food wise, we enjoyed the crackling of the day (pork), a charcuterie selection (cured wagyu, prosciutto, panectta, roast chicken roulade, onion jam and some sort of pickled chilli), kingfish tartare, pork belly, oysters, and a salad of witlof with candied walnuts. For desert we had a blackberry and Guinness bomb-alaska and a Rhubarb… something (lets face it, we were all a few beers in by the time desert came around, not saying it wasn’t delicious, because it definitely was… there may have been a fool involved).

Inevitably the comparison to Anada came up, which has many similarities in produce, geography (it’s literally around the corner) and the shared plate “tapas” style. While Anada is more traditional tapas (well, traditional in the Melbourne take on tapas ) and has a much larger menu, both places are comparable in attention to detail and use very high quality produce. As for which we prefer… I’m surprised to admit Josie Bones comes out on top. Anada is luxurious and has an intimate feel, whereas Josie Bones was a lot of fun and the focus on beer is obviously a winner for me.

When should I go?

We arrived early (at around 5pm) on a Saturday evening and there were only a few other customers. Because of this it felt like we were able to chat and ask questions of the front of house staff. I can’t say if people who arrived to a full restaurant received the same amount of advice and guidance, so I would recommend getting there nice and early. Take the time to enjoy the crackling of the day and learn about the beer on offer. The beer menu is amazing and overwhelming, so you’ll want to take your time and spend a couple of hours indulging.

If you know someone who loves beer, take them here next time you eat out. Arrive early and take your time.

Verdict,

I loved Josie Bones. The staff were attentive and knowledgeable, it felt comfortable, and the beer menu is unparalleled in Melbourne. It was also reasonably priced. If I had one complaint, it would be the servings were slightly small. Going back to the Anada comparison , the last time we visited Anada we had pork belly and the serve was much larger for around the same price. That is however a small issue and none of us left hungry.

Josie Bones was remarkably fun and we have already made plans to go back at least once in the coming weeks. As I said earlier, it really doesn’t fuck around. The menu is full of interesting dishes and it definitely doesn’t make any apologies for what they are trying to do; serve interesting high quality food and amazing beer.

I can honestly say it’s one of, if not the best, eating and drinking experiences I’ve ever had.

I rate it; 4 pig’s trotters and 1 strangely erotic skinned rabbit.

Eat at Huxtable

Huxtable is a fairly new asian fusion tapas style restaurant in Smith St. Get yourself a spot at the “bar” (I use quotation marks because the bar is really the kitchen) and watch the Chefs quietly prepare your food before they pass it over to you. When we visited they had Padron peppers as a special. I’ve been wanting to try these for a long time and eating them is basically a game of Russian roulette. As they say “Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non”.

Padron peppers are the perfect accompaniment to Huxtable’s own Huxta-brew. A beer brewed in NZ (which is where most of the staff hail from) that is a crisp clean and slightly sweet lager. Should they not have peppers on the menu, I can highly recommend their Oyster Po’ boy. A delicious baguette with fried oysters, hot sauce and coleslaw. The hot sauce has just enough heat in it to make you want to dive back in for another Huxta-brew.

Huxtable is the perfect place to escape the rigours of the festive season and share some food and quiet brews until you can’t eat and drink any more.

Listen to Graveyard Train and have a beer at Prudence

On their Myspace Graveyard Train descripe themselves as such: