Enotecellance

The first time I stepped inside the 1930s building that is 527 Church St Richmond, was back in 2002. The newly opened Dutton Enoteca was the venue for a Riedel Masterclass as part of that year’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. The class itself expanded my interest in wine and continues to inspire how I express my ever growing passion for food and wine. The Riedel dinner parties are testament to that. Back then there was a definite motoring theme. From the glimpses of the big boys’ toys next door to the motoring memorabilia mixed in with the art deco touches, I half expected Bibendum to be running the Masterclass.

Today, it’s Church St Enoteca and you walk into a large space with a lounge and bar, private dining room and function area on the left and the main dining room with its lofty ceiling, vintage posters and highly polished floor boards on the right. The spaces are divided in part by high banquettes which work well to define the areas.

Having recently started following Church St Enoteca head chef, Ron O’Bryan on Twitter and benefiting from his suggestion when I asked the Twitterverse what I should make for dinner one evening, it was an obvious choice to make his restaurant our destination on a typically wintery Melbourne Tuesday night when I simply didn’t want to cook.

A warm professional welcome when we arrived and we went straight to our table. I went straight for the banquette seat, depriving my beloved of the (too?) soft leather seat, but I am happiest when I have a full view of the room that I am dining in and he graciously obliged. In no time at all we were sipping on Prosecco from Ca’ del Bosco in Lombardia Italy. They are one of the more prestigious and successful wineries in Italy and this sparkling with its subtle aromas and delicate transparency is a good example of why. Some nicely chewy foccacia and olive oil served on a beautiful terracotta tile and we were ready to contemplate the menu.

The menu starts with a selection of Antipasti and Stuzzichini (appetisers) and includes hand cured meats, olives and daily selected oysters, shucked to order with a blood orange vinaigrette and salmon pearls ($3.5 ea/$20 ½ doz). For several years I have been enjoying something of a love affair with blood oranges, although I admit to normally having them with Campari. The tangy flavour with a hint of raspberry worked well against the soft saltiness of the oysters.

In what might be the only “typical” Italian feature the menu then moves through a range of Primi (entrees), Pasta e Risotti, Pesce (fish), Carne (meat) and Griglia (from the grill). These are complemented with Insalate e Contorni (salads and sides) and the daily Dal Mercato (from the market) options. If the menu headings are standard the dishes on offer certainly are not. Church St Enoteca offers very modern, yet entirely uncontrived Italian cuisine. Influences from some of the wider current trends and innovations in cooking can be seen in some of Ron O’Bryan’s dishes and his treatment of ingredients and combinations of texture, temperature and taste.

Spoilt for choice we opted to go for the four course chef’s tasting menu ($90) and, to ensure that no further thought was required from us, went for the matched wine option ($130). It is an Enoteca after all.

Our first dish, a Sweet Corn Pannacotta ($22) with broad bean and broccolini salad scented with truffle, pea vinaigrette was served in a stemless Riedel glass and digging into the creamy set sweet corn made me feel like a child eating a sundae. Every mouthful needed to be savoured and nothing left behind. The wine with this was Pecorino 2008 Colle dei Venti, Caldora. It’s a largely unknown Italian varietal that has nothing to do with the cheese. Full flavoured, a bit nutty and a citrus note, I like it as a match for the creaminess of the pannacotta.

Next is a Green Pea Soup ($18), with parmesan marshmallows, and a pea and herb salad. If my mother is reading this she will no doubt be surprised, for as a child the one vegetable I disliked with a passion was the innocent little pea. Give me Brussels Sprouts any day, but not peas! I would swallow them whole to avoid the taste, or hold them in my mouth, then leave the table and deposit them in such unlikely places as the nearest vase of flowers, much to the bewilderment of my mother when she later cleaned the vase and discovered them. Thankfully I have since moved on from this underhanded behaviour and have become rather fond of these little green legumes. The soup itself was like warm velvet filling the mouth.

I experimented with the parmesan marshmallows. Putting one into the soup and biting into it whilst coated with the luxurious and light liquid, and enjoying the other with the freshness and crunchy texture of the salad. I often don’t like to drink whilst having soup but the Monteoro Vermentino di Gallura 2007 that was matched with this for us, proved a worthy choice. From the substantial Sardinian section in the wine list, this is a great modern style vermentino with a fruity yet mellow palate.

To be completely honest I could have ended my meal at this point. Smiling, sated and satisfied. I didn’t of course. That would never happen, not with the Tortellini of Parmigiano Reggiano, Ricotta and Pecorino ($24 / $32) with sage butter, pine nuts, goat’s cheese, raisins, and 30 year-old balsamic as the third course. Not at all hard to understand why this was one of The Age’s Top 20 dishes of last year. Be warned though, it’s rich, but expertly so. It was the clear winner of the evening for my beloved who nearly found it hard to chew, so fixed was his smile of sublime enjoyment. This dish deserves a serious wine and Cannanau di Sardegna Riserva 2005 fits the bill. It pours like a pinot but is much heavier, spicier and has some nice tannins.

Our final dish was one of the “dal mercato” choices – a Black Angus with cavolo nero, a jus and potato mash. No photo for this one as it nothing I took does the dish justice. (Actually, none of them are as I would like). A lovely grilled texture on one side and butter smooth flesh on the other it showcases a focus on and understanding of produce. We drank Woodstock McLarenvale Shiraz 2006 with the steak.

By this stage, the restaurant was all but empty. A party was enjoying themselves in the private dining room, so the (still smiling) staff has a while to go yet. I should mention the staff. The service immediately hit the right note of rapport and friendliness without ever losing professionalism. Realising that I was scribbling things down all the time, each time she poured our next wine, our waitress kindly left the bottle at the table for a few minutes so I could capture the details.

We’ll be back, and not just to try some of the desserts. Although our waitress did say that every time she served the Pudding ($16 white chocolate and hazelnut with a liquid centre, banana mousse, bitter chocolate sorbetto) she wondered how she could have it for herself.