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390 Smith Street, Collingwood, 9417 4755
My score: 4/5
I can feel it: 2016 is the year I’ll be nurturing a sourdough starter, stuffing my own sausages, churning my own butter and turning pallets of tomatoes into a year’s supply of passata. And, on the off chance that none of these DIY resolutions makes it to February, I’ll be coming to the Craft and Co and enjoying the handmade goodies of proper makers and creators.
You can sense the dream writ large as soon as you walk into this bright, promising culinary playground. It’s a cafe, restaurant, coffee roastery, beer brewery, spirit still, wine store, meat curing depot, cheesery and kitchenware shop. This bounty spreads over two spacious levels with a ground-floor deck and the cranks, tanks, levers and taps of various bits of machinery on show; I wandered around for five gob-smacked minutes before I could even decide where to sit. Not all the stations are up and running yet but the whole place is fizzing with a sense of possibility.
The project is a long-held dream of Paul Baggio, brought to life alongside longtime manager Frank Bovezza and ex-Grossi chef Dom Marzano. Baggio owns Home Make It shops and cooking schools in Clayton and Reservoir, places that teach anyone with an appetite how to do things like make salami, cure olives and brew beer, then send them away with the equipment to do so at home. The Craft and Co is that notion amplified, a kind of DIY incubator for young producers and ingredient wranglers hoping to turn tasty notions into entrepreneurial endeavours. Book in for their Craft Day Out on March 6 to take a deep dive into how the space will enrich Melbourne’s culinary community.
Right now, come in to eat, shop and stock up on Australian cheese, meat and wine that you’ll never see at Dan Murphy’s. The menu leans toward Italian but it’s a produce showcase above all else. A wood-fired oven (from cult Italian brand Peva) creates alchemical magic. Try the crisp and melty lamb ribs (poached in masterstock then hot-flashed), a pizza verde with broccoli and fresh, sweet fior di latte cheese, and porchetta (rolled pork) with cider-spiked jus and exemplary crackling.
Interpolating flavours and processes is a theme: whey leftover from cheese-making is used to brine chicken; brewhouse remnants kickstart the pizza dough. Sometimes the mash-ups work and sometimes they’re weird, as with a bitter hops ice cream. Creative meat, cheese and drink pairings are more of a win: matching mozzarella with gin is a challenge I’m happy to roll with. In fact, if it’s not too late to tweak my resolutions for 2016, perhaps I’ll promise to try it, plus prosciutto with pale ale and whichever other crafty combinations the Craft and Co kicks up.
See their website.
More housemade:
Four Pillars Distillery, 2A Lilydale Road, Healesville, 5962 2791.
Come by to taste small batch gin and to learn how the magic happens. Groups must book ahead.
Monk Bodhi Dharma, Rear 202 Carlisle Street, Balaclava, 9534 7250.
One of Melbourne’s sweetest laneway cafes also roasts all its own coffee. Northside, check out the related Admiral Cheng-Ho, 325 Johnston Street, Abbotsford.
Baker D. Chirico, 183 Domain Road, South Yarra, 9820 2248.
You’ll have to wait another week for Baker D’s new South Yarra store to re-open. When it does, swoop for some of Melbourne’s best sourdough, croissants and danishes.
First published in The Age, January 4th, 2016.
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