Month: May 2007

Cooking, Vietnam

Searching for the best phố in Melbourne

It’s not something people talk about a lot but whenever I bring up phố there is enormous interest about where to eat it. People are always interested in the best places to eat in Victoria Street Richmond. When they hear I have a list of the best local phố restaurants from a phố expert in Sydney their notebooks and PDAs come out as they copy out the list. I discovered the “I Love Phố” exhibition that was held in Liverpool […]

journalism

In the trenches: The coffee business

From In The Black – May 2007:? You know that coffee is a big and profitable business when the drinks and snackfood giant, Coca-Cola Amatil, turns its attention to it. Two years ago it bought Grinders Coffee, whose founder Giancarlo Giusti is one of Australia’s coffee pioneers. Grinders was founded in 1962, when coffee in the English-speaking world, including Australia, was considered pretty awful, and the Asian market for coffee had yet to evolve. When sold it had a turnover […]

Wine

Grange Hermitage launch at Dan Murphy’s new flagship

Once upon a time there was a big wine store on Chapel St Prahran. It was called Dan Murphy’s and was pretty flash. Then it was bought by Woolworth’s and moved into a smart new warehouse building across the road – it was the flagship. It is still there but now the flagship is in East Malvern (811-823 Dandenong Rd) and it has a flash tasting room for all the posh wines it sells. I was there Monday for a […]

journalism

Sweet success in chocolates

The Australian, Entrepreneur ONCE upon a time chocolate was the preserve of the rich. That’s if you could find any decent chocolate to eat — a chocolate culture didn’t really exist in Australia. Then, inspired by their travels, local entrepreneurs began trying to replicate what they had found abroad. One of the first was Yarra Valley winemaker Peter Wilson who — seduced by the taste of Valrhona chocolate in France — started making his own in the late 1990s and […]

journalism

Herald Sun: Ed Lines

ED CHARLES dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars BEER DE LUXE As the fourth owner of the Upper and Lower House space in Federation Square in two years, the Belgian Beer Cafe’s George Christopoulos is renaming it Beer De Lux. Old-fashioned burgers are on the menu and upstairs is a grill. Italian food is served downstairs and sweets are available in the atrium cafe. A beer garden is planned. DOGS DINNER Food at the Dogs Bar […]