Paranormal Wines
World-class drops meet simple, standout fare at Canberra’s of-the-moment wine shop and bar.
A new breed of attraction has popped up in the inner-city suburb of Campbell (best known as home to the Australian War Memorial) and chief among them is a lively hybrid bottle shop-bar-eatery. In Italy they call this type of business an enoteca; here, it goes by the name of Paranormal Wines. And whatever the spectral connotations of that name, Paranormal’s enticements are decidedly corporeal and in no way frightening.
Owner Max Walker says he’s all about removing the scare factor from wine, steering the conversation away from anything intimidating and towards the pleasures of a bottle shared. To that end he’s drawn on his experience working at the convivial likes of MoVida Aqui in Melbourne and local favourite Bar Rochford to create the sort of venue that’s as suited to an impromptu after-work tête-à-tête as it is to a settled-in session with a table of friends. The room is spare, a box overlooking a park, its lines relieved by potted plants and a dash of florals. The real colour, though, comes from the bottles lining the walls. There’s plenty to like by the glass but everything on the shelves is available to drink-in, with the addition of a corkage charge on top of the retail price.
Wines from Canberra producers – Ravensworth and Mada among them – fill the fridges along with bottles from France and Italy, Germany and Spain. Local hero Mallaluka plus Victoria’s Momento Mori and South Australia’s Borachio are among the wineries working directly with Paranormal on bottlings for the store. There’s also a strong showing from the more interesting producers of non-alcoholic drinks.
To eat? Expect drinking food of a higher order. It’s about finding very good ingredients and not doing too much to them: Ortiz anchovies, bread from Sonoma, plump burrata from Vanella and superb cheeses by Holy Goat. LP’s Quality Meats in Sydney is another place Walker has walked the floor and its charcuterie is a highlight – plates of smoked mortadella and salami cotto, for instance, garnished with pickled peppers.
Walker says he likes to think of Paranormal as a wine shop “with bells and whistles”. He adds, “The prices are reasonable and the setting is relaxed. Essentially the brief for us is to share with you things you won’t find elsewhere and offer you some small plates of food to complement the experience.”
G27/6 Provan Street, Campbell; paranormalwines.com
For the past year, Agnes has been an emotive topic for excited Brisbane foodlovers. Early conversations centred on the frustration of an opening date that kept being pushed back. Now, 10 months since the first service, the predominant feelings are jealousy and smugness, depending on whether you belong to the “have” or “have not yet dined at Agnes” camps.
So why are Brisbanites, not usually prone to hyperbole or high emotion, so in thrall to the latest spot from the crew behind Same Same and Hôntô? Well, there’s the venue itself. In an age of somewhat look-alike dining precincts,
Agnes has been retrofitted into the confines of an awkward heritage-listed site with origami-like precision and consummate style. There’s a staircase leading up to a pocket-sized outdoor space reminiscent of a European rooftop terrace, another inviting diners down to a snug bar for pre- or post-dinner drinks and a mezzanine-level private dining room.
Cleverly moody lighting gives the feel of an avant-garde performance space. And this production is faultless, executed for a highly receptive audience to a soundtrack of Afro-funk beats.
Chef Ben Williamson (ex-Gerard’s Bistro) has always been good but here he’s graduated to greatness with a menu that eschews modern cooking techniques for the primal flame, imbuing everything with a seductive lick of smoke. Woodfired cabbage with lacto-fermented koji butter shares the list with charred carrots with mandarin kosho and smoked labne (above) plus a beetroot rosette with ricotta and coffee oil. All of this may inspire thoughts of a vegetarian future – until you strip a lamb rib painted with sesame whey caramel to bare bone, inhale the fragrant smokeand-fat of wood-roasted duck paired with sour-sweet pickled cherries and pomegranate jus gras or experience the eye-rolling bliss of hay-smoked mussels, hazelnut and buttermilk.
Nab a nanna-hour booking if you have to, take the waiter’s menu recommendations, leave the wine matches to the somm then enjoy the schadenfreude of telling your friends in the “have not yet dined at Agnes” camp all about it.
22 Agnes Street, Fortitude Valley; agnesrestaurant.com.au
Southside shouldn’t really exist. Back in early December, when Queensland border restrictions had barely been lifted, a restaurant of this scale – 170 seats across three storeys in an inner-suburban laneway – had no business opening. Five months on, its dinner services are seriously busy.
Decked out with ferns that lend it the feel of an ancient temple looming out of the jungle, Southside sits tall and narrow in South Brisbane’s Fish Lane. Arches and precise brickwork echo the detail architects Richards & Spence applied to The Calile Hotel on James Street but the treatment here is darker, more charismatic.
“Southside is a counterpoint to Rick Shores,” says co-owner David Flynn. The two venues share an open-air feel – Southside’s ground floor flows into the garden – and an affinity for pan-Asian cuisine, yet their disparate locations lend each a unique sense of place. “It’s this beautiful green space that swaps the noise of the ocean for the sound and feel of transit,” says Flynn of his latest restaurant. “It has a great inner-city energy.”
The food here is more approachable, too, with chefs Simon Hanmer and Benny Lam leaning towards fast-paced dumpling and noodle dishes that suit the buzzy location. From the dim sum menu, chicken wontons are drenched in black vinegar and chilli oil, while pork xiao long bao come spicy. Share plates include Goolwa pippies tossed in XO sauce and a mushroom tofu that hums with chilli. Still, the heroes come from the wok – there’s char kway teow stuffed full of Moreton Bay bug and lap cheong as well as a fragrant masterstock duck tossed with supple housemade noodles. To drink, the wine list places Australian boutique producers such as Smallfry and Latta alongside an impressive selection of old-world drops, while cocktails skew left-of-centre (try a grapefruit-based Southside to start, a plum wine Negroni to finish).
Despite the odds against opening a sprawling eatery in the midst of a pandemic, Southside’s vibrant atmosphere, big-name backers and even bigger flavours ensure it isn’t just existing, it’s thriving.
63 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane; southside-restaurant.com.au