DRY SPELL
Bare fruit bowl? Snack on crisp dried pineapple and orange slices from the Small Batch Food Company instead. $3.50 for 15g, smallbatchfoodcompany.com.au
FEEL-GOOD FRUIT OzHarvest has a smart use for imperfect oranges that can’t be sold, and it’s a real squeeze. It ends up in ForPurposeCo. Juice For Good vending machines, where it goes into drinks. Each cup sold helps fund meals for people in need. Visit ozharvest.org for locations.
SYDNEY Sure, Maybe Sammy is Maybe Frank’s newest sibling, but this spin-off bar in The Rocks is doing its own thing. There are theatrical cocktails: Circus Circus features a pillow that you pop, revealing one prize-winning scratchie inside, while Lady Luck includes a bonus jar of mango and passionfruit hand-cream that guests apply in between sips. Diners can try blue-corn tacos with salmon and avocado or sardines with goat’s curd.
MELBOURNE Take Northcote’s Estelle Bistro, merge it with the old Estelle by Scott Pickett space next door, and you have the new Estelle. Valentin Barrere (Vue de Monde) will serve ox tongue, beetroot with smoked bone-marrow dressing as well as charred kangaroo, sweetcorn and begonia, and flounder with XO mussels and sea grapes.
ADELAIDE Jock Zonfrillo works fast: Mallozzi opened three weeks after the Orana chef signed the Rundle Street lease. The menu has a brisk pace, too – think toasted mortadella and cream cheese sandwiches and cacio e pepe croquettes – while also tapping into memories of his Uncle Tony’s Italian restaurants in Glasgow (credit him for the fried mozzarella with white anchovies). Drinks are by co-owner Shaun Lau and include a detailed selection of amaro, Italian and local wines and, of course, a mandatory Negroni and Aperol Spritz.
BRISBANE Alanna Sapwell championed sustainability at Sydney’s Saint Peter, and she continues to do so at Arc. The restaurant and wine bar at the new Howard Smith Wharves precinct highlights underused meats (kangaroo with candy melon; venison and spentorange salumi with coffee crack), transforms offcuts into charcuterie, and showcases a range of minimal-intervention, natural winemakers.
NEW YORK Bāng Bar is David Chang’s smart take on a kebab joint. Gochujang-marinated pork and yakitori-glazed chicken are cooked on the spit, while vegetarian options include eggplant dip made with Thai chilli and basil. Lucky diners sometimes score free kimchi stew and mushroom ragù, too.
NAPA VALLEY Dining at Thomas Keller’s acclaimed restaurants (Per Se, The French Laundry) can cost well over $400. At La Calenda, his new Mexican eatery, dishes are around $20. Hits include fish tostadas, chicken enchiladas in stone-ground mole, and churros.