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The Spa Beechworth

The Spa Beechworth is an intensely personal experience where each treatment is carefully considered and customised to your needs. The old Benevolent Children’s Home building, stunningly renovated and fitted out, is a peaceful and quiet place to be. Each room is so tastefully designed, right down to the linen, that you can’t help but take a deep breath and smile that little smile of being in your happy place.

The therapist sets aside ample time to make sure that treatments happen slowly, quietly, and in a very honest and genuine way. There’s none of the pretense of day-spa speak. Just gentle, smiling faces and a conversation that leads through how a schedule of treatment could include quiet contemplation, massage, skin therapy, a bath or shower – whatever is needed to just relax for the afternoon.

Treatment is discreet, quiet, professional, and in the most beautiful way, gentle and honest. The therapists respect shyness, and ask lots of questions to make sure that any existing injuries are delicately handled. There’s no sense at any time that they are running to a time limit or a budget. Treatments like this take quite a while, but the time passes easily and it’s over all too soon.

For a longer retreat, The Spa is opening its accommodation in July 2019, so bear this in mind when you’re booking an escape from the noise of everyday life.

Seville Estate

Dylan McMahon, winemaker at Seville Estate, shoulders the weighty burden of carrying on a vinous dynasty. Built by his grandparents Margaret and Dr Peter McMahon in 1972, the winery played a significant part in the early re-establishment of the Yarra Valley as a premium wine region.

Since Dylan stepped in to the job as head winemaker in 2004, he’s taken the passion his grandparents showed for high quality wines and doubled down. Accolades from James Halliday (2019 Winery of the Year) and countless awards at wine shows attest to his focus on quality and flavour.

The newly renovated property has undergone extensive landscaping, with spaces for sitting outside under shade, chilling in beanbags, playing Bocce, and kicking back on the deck. The whole place urges you to slow down and make a relaxing day last as long as it can.

In twelve short months the new restaurant at Seville Estate has earned a reputation for local seasonal food with acute attention to detail. Neighbours bring in the excess of their home-grown produce, trusted local suppliers supplement the impressive kitchen garden on site, and the chefs take everything at its peak and do it all justice with full flavour and beautiful dishes.

By the time you read this, the menu will have changed – it does every week, sometimes more than once. Take a look through the images in the gallery here; you’ll get the idea. It’s all carefully prepared, cooked to perfection, and presented like works of art completely without pretence.

Wines are always considered as matches to the menu, and the staff are super attentive and knowledgable. You should take the extra time to go through a tasting at the cellar door before you sit down to eat. You’ll catch the winemaker here more often than not, but the whole crew are super-friendly and happy to talk about the wines they all share Dr Peter McMahon’s passion for.

Check out the accommodation in the newly renovated homestead, right next to the cellar door, too. It’s lavishly appointed, has a huge new kitchen, a swimming pool, and four double rooms for you and your friends on an epic weekend away.

 

Port Phillip Estate

It’s an unassuming introduction to Port Phillip Estate, through a door that feels a little bit industrial and a little bit James Bond. It opens out into the most extraordinary view across the fields to the ocean, with cellar door and casual bistro to the right, and more formal restaurant to the left.

There is a kind of curious dissonance in the slightly casual chairs and the formal settings, the friendliness of the staff and the formality of the restaurant fit-out. It’s like the formality has been dialled down in a venue where the quality has been dialled way up. It’s a feeling that carries through to the food. It’s hard to describe the visceral experience of sitting in front of such beautiful food. It’s an exercise in the balance of beautiful presentation without overshadowing the beautiful produce. Desserts are a stunning display of skill, but still don’t overshadow the produce they’re made from. That produce is locally sourced wherever possible, and the menu is seasonal.

The cellar-door experience is worth leaving a little extra time for. The wines of the estate are renowned for their quality.

For those wanting a little more time to take it all in, the accommodation is spectacular and shares that view across the fields to the ocean.

Merne at Lighthouse

Just to clear things up from the beginning: for the hard-core foodies who remember Loam and its two hats at this venue, Merne at Lighthouse is totally different. Don’t expect fussy degustations or cerebral menus. Merne is an altogether more casual affair. Chef Josh Smith uses that word, ‘casual’, too – but it’s clear from the food that he didn’t earn his chops at Macca’s. His CV includes The Royal Mail, Gordon Ramsay’s Maze, and Tulip Bar and Restaurant.

Merne at Lighthouse is the kind of project OHO loves. Former chef and owner of Gladioli Matt Dempsey, Graham Smith of Tulip, chef Josh Smith, and manager Caleb Fleet are like some sort of Marvel Comics superhero dream team. That they have decided on a casual approach to bloody amazing food is refreshing. It’s also a smash hit as far as nailing the concept.

The best way to eat at Merne is the chef’s grazing menu. Expect a table full of beautiful food to share. Sure, the experience is casual, but the word belies the care, thought and skill that goes into preparing food this lovely.

Mitchelton Wines

When you make your way up the long driveway into Mitchelton Wines, it only takes moments to be struck by the large tower that looks out across the vineyards. The driveway cuts through the coincidentally named vineyard, Airstrip, which echoes the airport control-tower aesthetic of the property’s iconic building. It’s a coincidence that makes you smile.

Students of architecture will spend the whole day smiling out here, not just because of the wines and the stunning food, but because of the great Robin Boyd’s recognisable building design. Sadly, Boyd passed away before the completion of the project, but Ted Ashton finished the build and the tower to complete Boyd’s vision.

Wines from this region of Central Victoria are typically powerful and full bodied. Expect lush fruit flavour for days, to go with your architectural smiles and your lunch of seasonal Goulburn River Valley produce from Muse Restaurant.

If a lighter option or cheeky breakfast is your preference, the Ministry of Chocolate Cafe is worth a visit in its own right. Speaking of chocolate, where’s the emoji for drooling? Some of the finest Belgian couverture chocolate is crafted into all kinds of things you’ll want to take home, but will probably just eat on the way.

Ten Minutes by Tractor

A note from the Ten Minutes by Tractor website:

Due to a fire in our old Tractor Shed adjacent to the restaurant, we have had to close our restaurant until further notice. Considerable progress has been made in clearing the site and in progressing plans to reopen.

Petit Tracteur, our sister restaurant up the road at 1208 Mornington Flinders Rd, remains open and unaffected by the fire with extended opening hours and tastings available.

Oakridge

You might know Oakridge for its deserved reputation as a producer of some of the best wines in Australia. The best wine writers consistently score Oakridge’s sacred drop over 95 points, and for good reason. The cellar door and restaurant, set in the middle of the vineyards at Coldstream, is a beautiful architectural work of minimalist art, and is the perfect place to try all the latest as well as some selected museum releases. Winemaker David Bicknell is one of the greats, described by James Halliday as ‘an extremely gifted winemaker’, so the opportunity to sample the wines with knowledgeable staff is one you should consider seriously as a life goal.

Another life goal should be to eat the food of Oakridge’s dynamic duo, Matt Stone and Jo Barrett. Both might appear familiar to you from cameo appearances on TV shows, including MasterChef. The ethos of local and seasonal is taken seriously, with an array of just-picked produce coming straight out of the large garden behind the winery. Matt handles the savoury flavours delicately and with such finesse that you’ll be hard-pressed to resist the instagram urge before devouring. Go slowly, because you’ll want to remember every bite. The same is true of Jo’s exquisite desserts.

One of the things we all look for when we go out to dine is flavour that we won’t experience at home. Jo and Matt both pair flavours with such bold confidence, you’re guaranteed a unique taste experience that you won’t get anywhere else, much less at home. Some flavours seem so unusual, ethereal and beautiful that they’re impossible to put a finger on. Who’d have thought that the lime-like acidity in a dish might come from the unexpectedly delicious addition of green ants?

 

The Royal Mail Hotel

So much has been written already about the extraordinary food at The Royal Mail. We know that it’s a save-your-pennies experience at the famous Two Hat restaurant – and that it’s worth it. But less well known are the other stunning gems also part of the Royal Mail Experience. The wine cellar attached to the business is, as you’d imagine, goddamn amazing. Here’s the awesome bit though – you can get into it for a rare tasting and tour. It’s literally a warehouse full of wine racks. And you can pay $25 for the most extraordinary flight of wines. This is the way to learn about the great French wines, and our local equivalents.

Also part of the Royal Mail’s DNA is the attention to produce. Most of it is sourced from the business’s properties – the beef and lamb from the farm, the olives from the grove, the fruit from the orchards, and the veg from the garden. You can take a complimentary tour of the garden as a guest of the hotel. Well worth it. We were inspired to make things grow in our own dirt back home.

Of course, it all comes together in the dining room, with the famous degustations. But if you’re just passing through from Port Fairy or Hamilton, try the Parker St Project. This is the Mail’s laid-back experience, but none of the attention to detail is lost. As the name implies, this is a work in constant progress, where menu items are tried and tested, and we get to sample in a casual, country pub-like setting. Worth the detour.

Masons of Bendigo

In the last Good Food Guide, Masons was thrilled to retain its One Hat status. But honestly, OHO would happily spend the last of the office pennies on lunch at Masons, regardless of hats. Sure, the award is a great accolade; but like all great chefs, Nick Anthony is not focussed on hats – he’s focussed on great food and a great experience. Masons delivers in spades.

Masons opened in 2012 in the former Masons Stained Glass building right in the heart of Bendigo. Steeped in the history of Victoria and its architecture, the former life of the place is still evident in the internal fittings.

The food pays homage to local producers in the region surrounding Bendigo. Nick and Sonia pay extreme attention to detail, ensuring that the beauty of the produce is respected, crafted into beautiful dishes, and delivered in a formal but fun environment.

There’s so much to love in the care Nick takes with his dishes. The presentation delights as well as adds to the way the food eats. It’s a lovely dance along the line between simple and complex. The kitchen is right there in the dining room, so you can spectate as all this happens right in front of you. More so than in the average open kitchen, this adds intimacy and connection to the careful preparation of the food. Staff on the floor are friendly and efficient, in keeping with the kind of casual formal dining that we love for special occasions or just a fun long lunch mid-week. And don’t forget the wines. The staff know their stuff, and the list is fabulous.

De Bortoli Yarra Valley

Amongst the hundreds of winemaking families in Australia, there are   the ‘First Families’ – those pioneers who shaped the way Australia makes and drinks the nectar of the gods.  All have generations of grape growing, squishing, fermenting, bottling and drinking to their names. Think McWilliams, Tyrrells, Tahbilk and De Bortoli.

Leanne De Bortoli brought the family name down to Victoria from Griffith in the late ’80s; she and her partner and the business’s chief winemaker Steve Webber have been living the ‘good wine, good food, good friends’ mantra. Three unique vineyards supply distinct fruit which expresses its sense of place. Steve has a passion for making wines that taste like where they’re from. For the lesson in terroir alone, you should book a private tasting experience.

The restaurant on site, ‘Locale’, sings from the same mantra song-sheet. Local produce (some of it grown just out the window next to the vineyard) combines with a slightly formal but definitely casual atmosphere. It’s like going to your fancy Nonna’s house for a big family meal with loads of great Italian food, more wine than you probably should have had, and laughs aplenty.  Except Nonna is a chef. And has staff. And a cellar door down stairs. Oh, and a cheese shop. Dear Lord, do not forget the formaggio. There’s a great selection of extraordinary cheeses, matured right there, available as platters, tasting plates to go with the wine tastings at the bar, or for taking home.