East of Everything + Smith and Daughters + The General Store

Disclosure: I was invited to the below restaurants and events as a guest 

Goodness, life seems to be getting the best of me, and although I am trying to keep up with the writing…it can be a challenge sometimes! So here's a little round up for a couple of media events I've been invited to…

East of Everything 

Level 3, 72 Auburn Parade

Camberwell 3124

When it comes to going out for a drink, my brain is quick to jump to the city or inner suburbs such as Fitzroy, Collingwood or Richmond, which are littered with funky little bars and some nice drinking holes.

But out in Camberwell? Who would've thought a great little beer spot could be found there? 

East of Everything brings a fantastic selection of rotating beers on tap and food from the Southern states of America to a surprisingly light and bright space (c'mon, who doesn't think dark and pub-like when they think beer?) tucked up a rather unassuming staircase. On a sunny summer evening, it was a very soothing environment to be in as light poured through the windows. 

A tasting paddle was the perfect way to get a nice taste of a couple of the beers, from left to right we sampled a Kolsch from the Mornington Peninsula Brewery, a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Hargreaves Hill El Dorada IPA and a Beer Here Vinter Ale. 

I particularly adored the lightness of the Kolsch, bringing me back to my time in Dusseldorf, where Cologne, or Köln, was just a half hour train ride away, where Kolsch is the specialty brew. And although the weather was not typical weather for a dark and heavy beer, like the Vinter Ale, I loved how Christmassy it tasted, making me wish for a white Christmas!

With good beer, comes good food (or so we hope) and East of Everything does not let you down. We're talking mac n' cheese croquettes, pulled pork and the piece de resistance? A fried chicken po'boy. Awwww damn!

The mouth waters on sight, with a rich barbecue sauce spread over a perfectly crunchy and fried piece of chicken. It's surprisingly juicy, off set with just a bit of slaw hidden at the back, to make sure you kids are still eating your veg. 

Brad and I had actually visited East of Everyting once before, and I honestly think it makes for a great date spot with it's chilled out vibe, and I guess if your date can handle a full po'boy, they're surely a keeper…

Smith and Daughters 

172 Brunswick Street

Fitzroy 3065

Call me stupid, but it didn't occur to me that a 'plant based' menu meant vegan for the longest time. Honestly! 

So I was honestly genuinely surprised to rock up at the Smith and Daughters preview to learn that everything was indeed vegan (with the waitresses rocking out 'vegan' shirts). 

But even then, I wasn't entirely convinced as I browsed the menu and found 'tuna' croquettes and 'prawns' in the paella, but true to their word, it is indeed vegan, with any 'meat' to be found made out of vegetable protein, but the 'vegan' aspect is not what they're trying to promote, which I think is honestly a very clever move. 

After all if the food is banging, is it really going to hurt anyone to eat more vegetables? Probably not. And fortunately at Smith and Daughters, the food was amazing, with so much variance in flavour and variety. I tend to find vegetarian places tend to taste a little same, same sometimes, but definitely not here!

From the zesty and bright oyster mushroom and white bean ceviche, to the fresh and homey flavours of the tamales, to the earthy and richly spiced aromas of the pazole. 

I was definitely very impressed with the paella, bursting with tomatoey goodness and a surprising depth I wasn't necessarily expecting. Complete with faux prawn. We were all given a small bowl, and I would have easily gone for seconds…if I had the tummy space! 

One absolutely cannot miss out on the jalapeno, cucumber and coriander margarita which is definitely one of my favourite cocktails of the year currently. Savoury, salty, spiciness, alcohol, what's really not to like? 

The General Store

213 Franklin Street

Melbourne 

"It looks like the guys from American Pickers walked in and threw up on the place."

This was Brad's immediate observations upon walking through a fridge, in lieu of a door, and into the General Store, on a quiet corner of Franklin Street opposite the Queen Victoria Market. 

Inspired by old US Trading Posts that later evolved into store that sold just about everything, the General Store is a curious space, where one can get some food for a nibble, a drink or three, sit on out of commission coffee machines, buy your groceries…and even get your hair cut by the in-house barber. 

Righto. 

The place is huge, two buildings with a common courtyard in the middle. Even when the bar was heaving with load beats and limited personal space, it was nice to be able to find a relatively quiet corner to take catch a breather, or at least hear your friend! 

There was a great mix of booze on the night, Fog City's sangria making an appearance, a great Canadian Club cocktail (which was far too easy to drink) in mandatory hipster mason jars, and Trumpeters alcoholic ice tea, which was probably my favourite thing of the night. 

My other favourite thing of the night (I can have more than one right?) is this milk crate Statue of Liberty which stands in the courtyard, which is also used as a vertical vegetable patch, where bartenders freshly pick their garnishes for their cocktails. 

Not everyone's kind of interesting, but I wouldn't say no if I was in the area (especially with those nachos…) 

Josie Bones

Generally I find, when I go out for meals, I don't usually go too heavy on meat. I tend to order more vegetarian dishes or fish meals, partially because I don't think it's too hard to have a good piece of meat at home and because I'm a girl and vegetarian or fish dishes always sound a tinier bit lighter and healthier.

However. I am a massive sucker for offal. I think I partially like being able to gross out some people I know with the stuff I eat, but I actually do enjoy all the funny bits and pieces. I find that they're often quite tender pieces of animal and sometimes richer in flavour.

So you know, Josie Bone's menu was just calling out to me.

My short little 50mm lens failed to capture the lovingly painted...naked...(?) rabbit on the wall behind the bar, which may be confronting to some, but is pretty neat to me. They're not going to dance around the bush here, they're not hoity-toity in the least, they'll serve you meat and you'll enjoy it or you won't.

Brad and I sat by the bar, which I always enjoy doing, but Josie Bones, decked out in Melbourne's favourite shade, black, is cosy and intimate. A long table for those bigger groups towards the back and tall tables to neatly fit groups of 4.

I have never seen a thicker beer menu. Ever. I was suitably impressed. Whilst the barmen came over to offer their advice and said we could ask them for suggestions and the such, I was determined to get through the menu. Which took a while. And then choosing....well that took even longer.

I ended up declaring to Brad, "I want a German beer", saw the Franzishaner on the list, remember having it back in Dusseldorf and went for it. Ah. Every drop of it was gorgeous. I'm sorry guys, but the Australian's just don't do it like the Germans do.

Brad got something on tap, I forget what. All that is important for you to know is that his glass was smaller than mine, making me the bigger beer man between the two of us.

After our serving of bread (which I did not eat, so cannot comment), we decided to start off with a spot of crackling. Now I'm used to having gorgeously crunchy pork skin from many a roast pork belly made at home or in a restaurant, but nothing like this. This was hard and conversation-halting-crunchy. I got the biggest kick out of just sitting there having a stare off with Brad as our chewing and crunching filled the talking space. A little bit salty, a little bit fatty, hardly oily, it was a just a hint of what we would be presented with later...

Oh it has been far too long...crispy school prawns with lemon aioli and lime. The last time I recall having prawns like this would have been back in Cumulus Inc which would have been well over a year ago. What am I depriving myself of?! I loved the novelty of the prawns being served in the paper cone, quite whimsy.

These were a little on the larger side than what I was expecting, not as crispy as I would like, but there was still enough to satisfy me. They were quite tasty and I'm pretty sure I must have been shovelling these down my throat. I was though, a tad disappointed with the aioli, whilst creamy, a bit lacking in flavour, it wasn't really lemony or garlicky enough for me.

The honey-roasted sweet corn salad with black olive and chorizo dressing was a blessing of a dish in between everything that was fried or deep-fried. It was light and refreshing, I found it extremely palate cleansing when I found the pork dishes (coming up in a moment) got too heavy and fatty for me. I'm used to having chorizo simply just sliced like a coin in salads, but it was quite fine here, which made it nice and subtle, adding a hint of spice and warmth, but not overwhelming the beautifully sweet corn.

Definitely one of my favourite dishes, quite a stand out.

Crumbed pig ear with wild pine mushrooms, pickled beetroot stems and rocket. And here comes the offal! Not exactly what I was expecting my pig ears to look like, but I find it intriguing and quite clever that they've managed to present it in a way that's almost totally not confrontational. I was explaining to my friends that they were kinda like...fish fingers.

The pig ears were crumbed nicely, not really a crunch, but they were tender. To be honest though, what really caught my attention, were the beautiful mushrooms and beetroot. So flavoursome!

Oh this just had to come out last didn't it? Rolled pigs head with sauce gribiche and crackling. It was this or the black pudding dish, but we opted to try something different. When it came out, we were told to make sure we ate it that we had a bit of the fat, a bit of the meat and a bit of sauce all in one mouthful.

Phowar. This thing was intense. It is everything you want and need in your life when you are quite drunk I think. This dish is not for the faint hearted. This dish is not for the people who are constantly on diets and cut off the large blobs of fat from their lamb chops or pork belly. This dish is not for people who like their meat lean. The fattiness of it...just amazing and mouth watering, so rich that it just almost melted into the meat as you put the two in your mouth. The sauce added fire to oil, again, just rich and dressed beautifully with herbs.

Why is everything bad for your body absolutely freaking delicious?

Brad and I very much enjoyed our laid back night. Casual, unpretentious, friendly. It took a little bit of time to get someone's attention to get our bill, but otherwise, everything came out fairly quickly and all our requests were entertained promptly.

I do very much enjoy the atmosphere and ambience, although I don't think I would want to be here on a very busy night. There's something about being lazy with beer that just works.

Josie Bones

98 Smith Street

Collingwood, 3066