Helmed by two of Melbourne favourite hospo sons, Travis Howe and Andy Joy, the CWR was classic from the start – an ever-bustling wine bar/restaurant that always manages a serene sense of calm due to the skilful, knowledgeable and warm stewardship.
And while a trio like that could easily be pushing the boat out into rarefied dining territory, that’s not really where they’re at. There’s a calm affability to Joy and Howe, without any pretensions to coolness, that informs the tone. Like Marion, Joy’s last gig, there’s a blurring of the lines here, a friendly tussle between wine and food for primacy of identity. That they interlock so gracefully is testament to its success. Call it a wine bar, a bistro, a ‘barstaurant’– if you must. Call it what you will.
Today, Toomey has headed off to head Baker Bleu’s operations – you’ll always find the exceptional bread at CWR – with his righthand since 2018, Conor Pomroy taking the reigns. Another Cumulus alumn, Pomroy is injecting his own signature, but the brief is the same. “He is continuing on in CWR kitchen tradition of producing menus that are simply fresh, seasonal, delicious and work with wine,” says Howe.
The food is wine-friendly, creative bistro fare with seasonality and produce the cornerstones. Small bites, like oysters, anchovy toast, duck and pork croquettes and tostadas with raw Abrolhos Island scallop, kick things off, followed by vegetable-and-seafood-leaning medium plates, and generous mains that can be eaten solo or shared, such as whole fish with anchovy and caper butter, a half chicken with guindillas, olives, celery and jus gras or half a kilo of O’Connor scotch fillet. Cheese and the now legendary rum baba sign off the menu.
And if choosing it too tricky. “With our daily menu,” says Howe, “all you need to do is just tell us what you don’t eat rather than what you do eat, and from there you’ll leave the menu entirely to Conor and the kitchen team.”
This is not the home of a vast leather-bound list, with the standard offering running to about 100 lines, although there are around 300 hundred or so other bottlings in the cellar and the sleek gold standard EuroCave wine cabinets that are nestled into less usable spaces. The main list a carefully curated offer, taking in an extraordinary amount of territory, both geographically and stylistically, though there is a gentle Italian lean, while the “reserve list” runs deeper on all fronts, with Howe and his wine-savvy crew ever present with advice and explanations.
“We have slightly stepped up our by-the-glass offering by including a couple fancy options that change regularly with the seasons and our menu,” says Howe. “And our reserve list continues to grow. We’ve been busy over the last few months adding some vintage depth as well as investing in a few heavyweight offerings from Italy and France, so all in all it’s exciting times on the wine front!”
The glass offering runs to about 20, and unlike many venues, Howe shuns the Coravin, although this doesn’t preclude the opening of serious bottles as specials, quite the opposite. He encourages his staff to open almost anything, and then to sell it all in a session. He sees it as a less lazy option. Open the wine for good reason, for a purpose, and back yourself to sell it. It’s a foundation that runs deep here, with a real sense of connection, of ownership, suffusing the service.
Mark Nelson has thrown out any notion of convention in his very personal wine bar, serving lo-fi wine and snacks, and every now and then veering into a full-on party vibe with disco ball, thumping music and rollicking good times – but it’s just as welcoming and even calm most of the time.
Named after the Italian ritual of a mid-afternoon snack with wine, Bar Merenda captures a sense of the bucolic life enjoyed in picturesque Daylesford. It’s the sum of strong creative inputs. It combines Clare O’Flynn’s skills as a designer and illustrator whith her husband Andy Ainsworth’s experience with managing wine-centric venues. They also grow vegetables…
If you’re of a mind to put up a chardonnay from new-breed local star Mulline against a Raveneau Chablis, you can do that here, paired with some of the best food in the region. If it’s hot, you can then kick off your shoes and walk across the sand to cool your heels in the ocean. Perfect.
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