In this briefing:
- Yarraville’s newest bar brings modern fine dining skills to a casual bar environment;
- Beverage Manager Miriam Wahlhütter’s approach to cocktails;
- Food over flames thanks to chef Paul Turner;
- Three Horses picks up another accolade.
Bar Gabi is the new venue from the team behind two-hatted fine dining restaurant Navi. With the uber-talented Miriam Wahlhütter heading up the cocktail program at Gabi (she’s the mastermind behind Navi’s cocktails, too) and chef Paul Turner in charge of the kitchen, this is a far more casual affair than the degustation-style set menu at Navi, with small tables and dishes designed for snacking and sharing. “At Navi all the drinks have to be made with the food in mind,” Miriam told me a couple of weeks ago. “But at Bar Gabi, I’ll be able to make cocktails that stand on their own, so I’ll have a lot more flexibility.”
And while the big wood-fired grill and the fire-licked dishes being prepared thereon are certainly enough to build a full meal, Gabi feels like a bar first and foremost. The bar itself is the first thing you hit walking into the light-filled, heritage shopfront on Anderson Street in Yarraville, with small tables running down the opposite side of the room and larger tables for more involved dining residing upstairs in the mezzanine dining area.
Bar Gabi has only been open to the public since Saturday, and when I popped in to take photos just before doors on Sunday, the team had that bewildered look in their eyes like soldiers returning from the front lines. It’s that rare combination of exhaustion and anxiety that only the first few services of a popular new venue, or being the parent of a newborn baby, can offer. “Yesterday we sold everything,” chef Paul told me, chucking another log on the fire in anticipation of another busy shift.
I asked the bar team if the cocktails had been popular so far, compared to wine and beer. “Yes!” a server nods at me emphatically, eyes wide. And I can see why.
Bar Gabi’s cocktail offering is bright and fun, but with all the technical knowledge and seasonality you’d expect from the Navi team. The Folly, for example, is a modern interpretation of a Piña Collada crossed with a Japanese Slipper. Here, coconut rum is milk punched with coconut cream, strawberry vermouth, strawberry oleo and melon liqueur for a silky-sweet sipper bursting with fresh strawberry aromatics.
“I wanted to make something fun and tiki-style,” says Miriam, “but present it in a modern way without the big ceramic mug and all the crazy garnishes.”
The most popular drinks so far, they tell me, are the Phoenix, a Tequila Sunrise-inspired highball of paperbark-smoked tequila, orange shrub and Marionette cassis, and the Kin, a boldly-flavoured combination of dark rum, blood orange cello and rhubarb topped with a miso caramel foam, the butterscotch sweetness of foam balanced by the boozy liquid beneath. Everything on this list is bright, colourful and flavourful, and locally-produced spirits get pride of place with only the occasional import making an appearance.
Other drinks on offer include Victorian-skewed craft beers and wines by the glass, as well as a lovely list of aperitifs including several vermouths from both Punch & Ladle and Saison, as well as amari from the likes of Beechworth Bitters and Autonomy.
And of course the snacks should not be overlooked. “The damper is so good,” a server tells me. “It’s cooked over the fire and served with miso butter.” I’m sure it’s just the thing for mopping up grilled brie with pepperberry honey and fig, or the juices from snapper with sweet and sour sambal.
Bar Gabi feels like a wonderful evolution of my favourite trend typified by venues like Bar Carnation, where great food, great wine and serious cocktails get equal billing. Here that approach has the deft touch of modern fine dining, with local and native ingredients front and centre.
Around the Bars
Off To The Races. As spring racing season kicks off around Melbourne, a trio of far less problematic ponies have stomped the field. Three Horses was named Bar of the Year at The Age Good Food Guide Awards last Monday, backing it up for the bar’s owners who won the same title for Caretaker’s Cottage in 2022. The trophies keep stacking up for this sherry-focused cocktail bar, and well-deserved, too.
Fertile Ground. Stomping Ground, Victoria’s biggest independent brewery, is marking their 10th birthday next month, and to celebrate they’ll be blocking off Islington Street in Collingwood to traffic for Stompo Street Fest presented by Triple R. There will be a whole program of live music performances, plus drag, circus acts, live art, free flash tattoos, an oyster station, cocktails by MGC and a kids zone inside the Beer Hall. Stomping Ground is also using the occasion to announce plans for a new brewery and flagship beer hall in Geelong, opening in 2027, the start of a wider rollout of new beer halls across Melbourne and the regions. Nice to see an indie brewery expanding rather than contracting!
