Mt Erica Hotel

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420 High St. Prahran, VIC 3181

My score: 4/5

Some chefs make great flavours seem so simple that you wonder why all food isn’t unremittingly enjoyable. Sean Donovan is such a chef and he’s wielding his culinary arts and smarts at the just renovated Mt Erica Hotel.

The pub has been a Prahran fixture since 1853 when the original timber structure nestled by a rudimentary racecourse, stockyards and a nursery. It’s seen it all. Nineteenth century holidaymakers came for the sea breeze (possibly optimistically as the pub is four kilometres from St Kilda beach). Bookies, auctioneers and electioneers all propped up the bar and, more recently, a band room ensured the carpet stayed sticky.

During the past decade, the Mt Erica ran a rocky road and locals feared it would fall to dreaded developers when the previous tenants were locked out last summer. Then good news swooped in the form of a consortium of pub professionals – flavour-nailing chef Sean Donovan, who also has Fitzroy’s Town Hall Hotel, and the guys behind Fitzroy’s marvellous Marquis of Lorne. Fittingly, the takeover plan was hatched over a bunch of beers.

Hanger steak is handled with care. Photo: Simon Schluter

This is a big corner site, licensed for 400, and every surface has been refinished. There’s a handsome, clubby retro feel with timber panelling, tartan upholstery, a mix of cork and carpet flooring and comfortable counter, armchair and banquette seating. It’s smart but not fancy. The courtyard is dog-friendly and there are plans to expand it. There’s sport on the screens in the bar; Fleetwood Mac is likely to fill the dining area. Best of all, it feels like a please-all-comers local. It was swamped from day one.

Pub basics are meted out with aplomb – a burger, steak, schnitzel, fish and chips – and there are bistro classics that melt the heart, all backed up by proper sauces made with real stocks, side salads dressed with good oil and vinegar, and beer and wine that cover all the easy and approachable bases.

Whole flounder – such a lovely fish, so nice to eat – is served with capers, lemon, parsley and butter, lots of butter, and just enough salt to make all the flavours sing. It fills the plate like poetry fills the soul.

Steak – just three cuts; we had flavoursome hanger – is expertly seasoned, grilled, rested: there’s nothing to it in some ways, but so many ways to get it wrong.

A charcoal rotisserie lovingly twirls lamb rump rubbed with Middle Eastern spices. The lamb is cooked with its layer of fat intact so it’s juicily self-basting. It’s served with a cauliflower and chickpea salad and tahini dressing.

There’s plenty of non-meaty fresh stuff too. A hearty chopped salad is studded with chorizo and cheese. Pretty heirloom crudites come with runny goat’s cheese for dipping and swiping. Carrots get the barbecue treatment and spicy seasoning.

The prawn cocktail is a retro winner that Donovan used to serve at Footscray’s Station Hotel. Plump prawns are drowned in Marie Rose dressing, a daggy sauce of ketchup, cayenne, Tabasco and mayo, with crunch and lift from shredded iceberg and mint. Give me a bucket of the babies.

When this sort of food is done right it looks easy. It’s not. You need to be confident enough not to reinvent the wheel, you must have quality ingredients, and you have to execute with exacting care. Crucially, you need to build flavour from the beginning, not by froufrou at the finish.

On all counts, Sean Donovan brings the noise, and he’s doing it in a great old pub that’s feeling fresh and fabulous.

First published in Good Food, 21st December 2017.