Marvellous Melbourne Monday – Tipo 00
It seemed fitting that I spend my first unemployed Monday doing something that was a big part of me deciding to become unemployed… eating and drinking!
Tipo 00 has been on my “must do” list for far, far too long. I’m embarrassed as a proud Melbournian that yesterday was my first visit. And now I totally regret I didn’t get there sooner and return often because everyone was right – it’s fantastic.
My friend Nicole and I settled in for a long lunch – we have both recently finished work so we were quite delighted about the concept of a long, boozy lunch on a Monday! We started, as we often do, with a glass of NV Borgo Molino ‘Extra Dry’ Prosecco, sitting up at the counter with a great view of the open kitchen. The bar seating is a great option for all those Ones out there – I arrived before Nic and felt really at home sitting up there surrounded by the buzz.
We settled in at a table for two and decided we were going to do it properly by having the Chef’s Menu for $65 per person and a bottle of 2013 Mamete Prevostini ‘Botenero’ Nebbiolo. Our warm and casual, but efficient, waitress explained that we could let her know if we had any particular requests for the selection of starters, pasta and dolce and she would let the chef know. That was a really nice touch, not really a ‘choose your own’ chef’s menu, but definitely open to ideas! We put our wish list in of sardines, snapper spaghettini and I mentioned my ‘not allergic, but really just not that into eggplant’ thing.
To start there was rosemary focaccia, cut from a massive slab of it that sits on the marble kitchen pass ready to be portioned, accompanied by fresh ricotta. Salty, crumbly goodness. Tomato arrancini were old school balls of comfort. Crispy and golden on the outside, with a still bitey, smooth tomato rice mix inside. The sardines made us very happy we will be in Greece in a few weeks and will be eating like this – fresh, simple seafood that stands on its own beautifully, although the baccala and pesto were also welcome.
Then came the ox tongue. This is what I love about Chef’s Menus. Almost every time I order this way, I will end up trying something I would never order off the menu and, more often than not, that results in the discovery of something new that I love. The ox tongue was served warm, shaved very delicately with balsamic vinegar and pink peppercorns. It was silky, but firm enough to bite without texture issues reminding you what you were in fact eating! I’m not sure I would make it my new go to entrée order, but I really enjoyed it. And I like the feeling of being pushed out of my eating comfort zone.
I was so excited about the main event, the pasta. I would eat pasta every day if the side effects wouldn’t require a whole new wardrobe – I love it. The spaghettini came with a silky, generous saffron, fennel and butter sauce and had small fillet of snapper, with golden crispy skin to break up through the pasta. Sunshine on a grey Melbourne day. I rarely order gnocchi, it can so often be cloying and heavy. Not here. Pillows of potato gnocchi were smothered in a rich, wintery, tomato ragu with chunks of breaking apart, slow cooked beef and some wilted spinach for good measure. It came out with lashings of pecorni on top. Joy, pure joy. All it needed was an open fire and a decent storm outside.
A well-timed break followed to get our dessert stomachs ready. And then we proceeded to eat what my non-dessert-loving friend decided on the spot is the best dessert she’s ever eaten. For the last 8 years, the deconstructed Snickers at Taxi held that honour. Its rein was over. The Tipomisu was also a deconstruction concept – a hollowed out brownie, filled with a marscapone mix and topped with a lid of dark chocolate. But that sauce. Poured on hot at the table, it was caramel, espresso, chocolate and salt and somehow was not too sweet. The salt and coffee and dark chocolate ensured what could have been oversweet, sickliness was instead dessert perfection. Even if you don’t normally do dessert, do this. The pannacotta was also delicious, but frankly, there was no way it could compete with the Tipomisu!
As the busy city worker lunch rush died off and the crowd thinned out, people walked in off the street and managed to get a table without a booking from about 2.30pm. The tables surrounding us were taken by a young Italian pair who had only two days in Melbourne and two men speaking Italian who occasionally broke into English in broad Australian accents. We know this because the Italians spoke to one of the men, complimented him on his Italian and asked for a recommendation of where to go next for a drink. He recommended Siglo, we concurred. Another pair came in wearing beanies, hoodies and tracksuit pants – the staff didn’t bat an eyelid. I really enjoyed the fact we were sitting at a restaurant that came in at number 7 on the Australian Financial Review’s Top 100 restaurants list, but you could have a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine for not much over $30 if you wanted and it was accessible enough people can still walk in and get a meal without a booking (granted, it was a Monday lunchtime, but still)! Two and a half hours later, we left Tipo 00 as massive fans, certain to be repeat diners, although we probably won`t be in tracksuit pants!