Discover northern delights
IT is a tale of two cities, I discovered as I roamed the Launceston CBD last Friday.
Seeking lollies for a Christmas in July party, I headed to Gourlay’s Sweet Shop at 12 Quadrant Mall, a public space redeveloped four years ago as part of the Launceston City Heart revitalisation project.
The initiative was meant to perk up commerce and community engagement in the precinct, but I saw an alarming lack of foot traffic and many shop front windows bearing For Lease signs.
I felt for stoic remaining tenants, including restaurant Pachinko (23 Quadrant Mall, open Wed-Sat from 5.30pm), an intimate and well-regarded 24-seater serving modern Asian cuisine.
It was a different story on Charles St, where the block opposite Prince’s Square park is becoming quite the gourmet strip. Hope abounds at brand-new wine bar Havilah, where winemaker owner Ricky Evans and partner Chanel Parratt are staking a minimalist claim on connoisseurs with a sophisticated wine list that pays tribute to terroir.
Geronimo Aperitivo Bar & Restaurant (186 Charles St) is a few doors along and one of the handful of restaurants that sit in Lonnie’s top tier with Stillwater, a list that also includes Black Cow Bistro (70 George St) and MudBar Restaurant (28 Seaport Boulevard). Geronimo’s Eurocentric menu is designed around share plates showcasing Tassie produce. Open for lunch and dinner bookings,
Tuesday to Saturday, with takeaway meals and drinks also available.
Prince’s Square Bar (164 Charles St) on the same block is a cute espresso and pastries bar that opened two years ago. It’s also a go-to for your Lonnie equivalent of a Hobart Pigeon Whole Bakers devotee, offering loaves of naturally leavened Sweetwheat sourdough.
Nearby Tinka Coffee Brewers’ (147 St John St) offering is also a caffeine and bread zone. Melbourne imports David Straw and Samantha
Burton opened in January, tinkering with their formula before landing on their go-to: quick gourmet sourdough toasties and locally roasted coffee.
“Do one thing and do it well,” David said. “It’s perfect for a quick lunch on the go.”
Follow with a beer chaser a few doors down at Saint John Craft Beer Bar (133 St John St), where kegs are continually switched over to keep punters’ palates attuned to differences between brews.
This is the Launceston answer to Salamanca’s Preachers or Jack Greene’s, but grungier, then tempered by a dash of ubiquitous craftbrewer hipsterdom.
“This place is for everyone,” the afternoon barman in a beanie said, but when I looked around everyone else was a bloke. The most popular beer is Stone + Wood.
Perhaps the most unusual offering on tap last Friday was a Wayward Brewing Co Raspberry Berliner Weisse — a sip of summer on a cold winter’s day.
I also discovered a divine homewares and lifestyle store on the same stroll. Ecoco (51 Balfour St) opened in Launceston 10 years ago, and has built up a distinctive aesthetic of textured refinement. The shop is well worth a peek, or visit online at ecoco.com.au/ collections.
The smaller Hope & Me (18 Quadrant Mall), back where we began, is a lovely shop, too, in which fabrics are natural and hues are earthy.
And quality accommodation is growing, from Peppers Silo (89-91 Lindsay St, Invermay, includes Grain of the Silo restaurant) and boutique apartments Change Overnight apartment hotel (25 York St) to the superlative Stillwater Seven (2 Bridge Rd).
Wherever I walked, I found myself looking up as well, drinking in the CBD’s beautiful and largely intact heritage architecture.
Parks and streetscapes are likewise well-maintained and charming.
Launceston is also home to Design Tasmania, a museum of contemporary timber design with a craft gift shop, but on my visit it was yet to reopen after the lockdown.
There is also the city’s Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery (on two sites).
For galloping gourmets, the Saturday Harvest Market (71 Cimitiere St) is back in business, 8.30am-noon .
I left the jewel of the North, returning to Hobart via an unusually green and well-watered midlands, thinking Launceston offered boundless potential for a further revitalised future. It has the backdrop, with built heritage and paddock-to-plate proximity.
Good new local-sourcing cafes usually bode well, but they are just the beginning.
The City of Launceston, which sits inside a marginal federal seat, was a lucky and controversial recipient of a recent $10 million Better Regional Fund grant to build “a creative precinct”. Let’s hope the zone is well-conceived and positioned to encourage the greatest possible convergence of people. Nobody loves a white elephant.
Fingers crossed, Launnie.