The Stokehouse is risen. It seems only weeks ago the landmark St Kilda restaurant was destroyed by fire and everything was lost. All the tables (bar one) and chairs, the glassware, the entire cellar of 1000-plus bottles, even staff keys and wallets. Within 24 hours the heritage 1920s building had been razed. All gone.
It was just weeks ago, of course. January 17. Even if you’re not remotely interested in the Stokehouse story, what happened next has been pretty remarkable.
Little more than a month after the blaze I’m driving down Jacka Boulevard, past the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron and the St Kilda Sea Baths, half expecting to see some temporary, wedding-style marquee at number 30. But the Van Haandels, Stokehouse’s polished owners, would never have gone for a common or garden canopy. This is the mother of all marquees.
The pop-up Stokehouse is a soaring structure of stretched white polymer that seems to fill every inch of the void left by the fire. At the entrance, a verandah carpeted in fake grass sports giant plywood wheelie bins brimming with leafy oak branches.
Sustainable architect and florist to the stars Joost Bakker fashioned the botanical arrangements. Inside, vases are stacked on rusted metal shelving to decorate and divide the space into more intimate areas. Without trying to read too much into Bakker’s flourishes, I’m thinking: new shoots, fresh start.
All that white and green, the putty-coloured bentwood chairs, timber-look flooring and a double-height wall of glass onto the bay give the space a pleasant conservatory feel. The views are unobstructed and better than ever before.
“It’s good to be back!” beams the woman at the faux marble reception desk. I tell her I’m surprised the marquee is only single storey. It looks so lofty from outside. “It’s too windy down here at the beach to do two [storeys],” she explains. “We’d have to evacuate all the time. And I think we’ve done enough evacuating here.” Love a bit of black humour.
My favourite bit of the new Stokehouse is the menu. It’s affordable, accessible and littered with things I want to eat. From the snacks section, we take the fried school prawns, crusted in paprika salt and served with a cheek of lime and some sort of mayo, possibly a faint aïoli. The prawns are ridiculously tasty but not as small as they could be; my date baulks at putting a prickly head that big down her alimentary tract.
I have no such qualms.
Silken serrano ham with creamy burrata mozzarella and grilled peaches is my idea of heaven on a plate. Good Spanish ham makes my brain’s pleasure zones go pop. Even more so when it’s dished up with tiny, intense basil leaves and hunks of toasted, slightly burnt sourdough. Another contender for the summery dish of the day is the ceviche of local snapper dressed with Spanish onion, chilli, piped mounds of creamy avocado and some wafer-ish croutons for crunch.
There’s a one-page wine list, a far cry from the 600 labels of old but a necessary austerity measure given there’s only one upright fridge by the bar to store bottles. That said, sommelier Lincoln Riley is gradually adding new and pricier labels to satisfy the refined tastes of regulars. Pop-up or no, they have certain expectations of the Stokehouse experience.
“When we started on [Valentine’s Day], the offering was quite simple and we were trying to find a line between café and restaurant,” manager Joel Penno says. “But we learnt quickly that people were wanting a little more.”
Hence there are also daily specials, such as a one-kilogram rib-eye on the bone to share, to augment what is essentially a very casual menu with entrées keenly priced in the teens and mains in the lows 20s and 30s. Call me cheap but the food seems to taste even better for the bargain prices.
A carpaccio of wagyu tenderloin is splayed out like a pink-red flower, the meat sliced gauze-thin so it dissolves on the tongue with a hint of fried caper or pine nut, anchovy or a lush custard of gruyère cheese.
Mains veer towards the popular with a Caesar-esque salad, burger, fish and chips, and the restaurant’s classic chilli linguine. It’s studded with (slightly overdone) Moreton Bay bug meat and prawns, sliced garlic and the sweetest cherry tomatoes I’ve tasted all season.
It’s fig season, so dessert is easy. Fresh figs with honey ice-cream. I would have liked more fig – it’s diced rather than whole, and quite sparse – but the honey ice-cream makes me happy. It tastes like leatherwood, fragrant and full-flavoured. There’s also a bavarois-like mousse of fig and fromage blanc, and a trail of almond praline crumbs for a surprise toffee crunch. Lovely stuff.
Diners can pop into the pop-up only until Mother’s Day, after which the rebuilding begins. Get it while it’s hot (but not too hot, obviously).
STOKEHOUSE POP-UP
30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda
Cuisine | Modern Australian Chef Oliver Gould
Hip pocket | About $40-$50 a head; drinks extra
Open | Daily noon-late
Highlights | The triumph of spirit
Lowlights | The loss of a landmark
Bookings | Encouraged
Phone | 9525 5555
» www.stokehousemelbourne.com.au
