Signature Oysters: Media

SMALL BUT PERFECTLY FORMEDBY: KEVA GOCHER 28 APRIL 2015

Doors Open: Morgan McGlone, Miranda Campbell, Adam Shoebridge, Peter Jo and George McCullogh at Bar Clarine

Signature Oysters: Media

The hotly anticipated natural

wine bar sidekick to Belle’s

Hot Chicken, Bar Clarine,

opened a few weeks ago. The menu

will change every 10 days, and

every second you spend reading

this decreases your chances of a

seat. The new project by Morgan

McGlone and Miranda Campbell

is tiny, with just 22 seats and no

bookings.

But if it’s small, it’s also ambitious

and spry, a place of minimal

intervention wines and maximum

fun for oenophiles who have

reached peak hot chicken.

Shucking signature oysters, serving

them with cucumber, bay oil

and white pepper is chef Adam

Shoebridge, an ex co-worker of

McGlone’s from Husk in the US.

It’s wine-food menu that maintains

the Southern accent of next door,

though mildly so. That might look

like sardines on toast with a tomato

gravy (cornmeal cooked down with

tomatoes) or salad-meets-cheese-

plate hybrid mignonette hearts with

a malted onion dust and big curls of

beaufort cheese. Other cheeses and

terrines are being made in-house,

while the fresh produce driving the

menu is being negotiated with a

farm collective in Monbulk.

Manning the wine collection

(cellared off-site in Collingwood)

is George McCullough, the young

sommelier with strong game

courtesy of time at the Builders. It’s

an international cellar with minimal-

interventionist heart, which McGlone

has been building since October,

and currently features rare French

cuvees and bonus non-wines such as

Laurent Cazottes tomato eau de vie

made with 72 types of the plant.

150 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, 9077 0788,

Tue-Sat 5pm - 11:30pm (later when the

license expands).

Picture: Pat Scala