Dinner for three at Cutler & Co

Cutler & Co
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9419 4888
Open for dinner Tuesday-Sunday, plus lunch on Friday and Sunday
website


Carla (author of the excellent blog Easy As Vegan Pie) and I had been talking for a while about going out for a nice lavish dinner together and each writing about it afterwards. Hopefully it'll turn into a semi-regular collaborative blog series. We decided on Cutler as our first destination and booked a table, advising them of our dietary requirements well in advance (me: omnivore but for mussels, her: wheat-free vegan). I was confident that they'd cater for an omni just fine, but was looking forward to seeing what they'd serve Carla.

We brought along Dan, editor of Milk Bar Mag, as our innocent bystander. Apart from the omnivore entrees and mains that Dan and I ordered, everything else that was brought to the table was both vegan and wheat-free.


In the interests of transparency I'll point out too at the outset that we were treated very very well that night. While none of us sought special treatment (ugh, the tackiness of those who actually call up restaurants saying that they're food bloggers makes my skin crawl) a number of dishes arrived at our table compliments of the house. Upon review of the receipt some days later we noticed that there was an apparent mix up with one of the bottles of wine we'd ordered, but given all the little extras that came our way we still easily came out on top.


As we downed the Junipero gin and tonics we'd ordered from the charming Lachie, we were brought a trio of complimentary appetisers: seaweed crackers with smoky eggplant mousse and sesame, juicy Manzanilla olives and fried pimientos de Padrón with sea salt. Loved the smoky fluffy eggplant with the crisp crackers in particular.


I'd been sorely tempted to choose the pretty entree Dan decided to order, the smoked and fried duck with morcilla, golden raisin and beetroot ($27)...


...but I loved loved loved the entree I ended up ordering, a delicate arrangement of hand picked spanner crab, corn custard, mushrooms, sweet radish, pickled ginger and nasturtiums ($29), served cold. My new favourite dish at Cutler.


Two small salads arrived unbidden with our mains, one crunchy with shaved cabbage and fennel, and the other with rather meaty heirloom tomatoes, muscatel vinegar, purslane and different kinds of basil.


For main course Dan ordered the pan roasted snapper ($44). It was served with mussels, slivers of cuttlefish, green tomatoes, pickled onions and parsley sauce. And foam (afraid I can't recall what the foam was). Dan confessed to being a little underwhelmed by this one.


I really enjoyed my main though. It consisted of two variations of beef: grain fed strip loin ever so lightly seared then sliced down the middle, and a wonderfully unctuous and rich braised short rib with onion and pureed cauliflower ($46).


I asked our highly professional waitress to bring a vegan dessert for the three of us to share. It was composed of white nectarine, white peach, blackberries, frozen dehydrated raspberries and verjuice granita ($18). Delicious, but I confess to wishing I'd ordered whichever dessert includes the Cutler & Co violet ice cream, cos it is goddamned glorious.


Oh and some complimentary fig drizzled with thyme caramel (pictured here half devoured by Carla) and fudge arrived with our coffees.


Now click to read Carla's far more entertaining version of events and see what she was served for entree and main (I think the entree she had is usually served with raw Hervey Bay scallops). Carla is also running one of her vegan cooking classes in a few weeks, so make a booking if you know what's good for you...

And get yourselves down to Cutler! Head chef Jean-Paul Twomey and his kitchen are at the top of their game.

O Cutler! My Cutler!

Cutler & Co
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9419 4888

(with apologies to Walt Whitman)

Best-friend-K and I had dinner at Cutler and Co on Saturday night: partly as a consolation prize for missing out on tickets to the MFWF David Chang dinner (it's still a very painful topic for me to talk about. Maintain the #MOMOFUKURAGE, twitterfolk!), and partly because on Saturday night we were going to see The Road at the Nova beforehand, so we'd figured we'd need some cheering up after sitting though the grim, post-apocalyptic bleakness of the film. Uh, we weren't wrong.

A few weeks ago, Melbourne Gastronome reader @Barbarella1978 asked on Twitter: "Is it bad that in meditation terms my 'happy place' is cicciolina back bar?"

I'm pretty sure I feel the same way about both the front bar and back restaurant of Cutler and Co.


We started, as has become customary for us at Cutler, with a flawless, damn stiff negroni.

We then had a trio of Moonlight Flat oysters ($3.50-$4 each, clockwise from bottom left): a Petit Clair, a Clair de Lune Bouton and a Rusty Wire. I learned all about these oysters at the Oyster Masterclass held by Cumulus Inc and Moonlight Flat Oysterage at last year's MFWF (they're holding it again this year - if there are still tickets available, it's an event I highly recommend to you). Oddly enough, despite my fondness for it last time, I really didn't like the Petit Clair... but I loved the other two.


We were having difficulty making up our minds about which entrees to order, and considered ordering the Entree Selection ($39 per person). Our decision to order it was made once we learned that a dish from the degustation-y Menu Selection (that is not on the regular entree menu) was also included in the Entree Selection: tuna sashimi with buttermilk snow and fresh wasabi. BUTTERMILK SNOW, you say?

Andrew McConnell, you cheeky devil. It was so so so good. The sashimi was crazy fresh, the buttermilk snow was wonderfully cold and sour creamy, and the fresh wasabi was contrasted with pickled cucumber and thinly sliced cuttlefish. Definitely recommended.


Included next in the trio of entrees was the pressed quail terrine, fois gras cigar, orange and pistachio. The terrine also features on the bar menu, and I'd loved it when I ate at the front bar in November. It's a great terrine, and it tastes so lovely with the piquant sour cherry and the pistachio crumbs. A wonderful addition to the dish is the cigarillo of Tunisian brik pastry filled with parfait de fois gras that had so delighted b-f-K and me, in a different dish, on our first visit to Cutler almost a year ago.


The last of the Entree Selection dishes was an heirloom tomato salad with marinated vegetables, fromage blanc, tarragon and almond aillade. Again, very similar to a delicately flavoured dish I ordered in November from the bar menu. Only this time it contained marinated zucchini and eggplant, and the freshest, loveliest zucchini flowers. As well as a few varieties of tomato, the salad also contained different kinds of basil.


While we were waiting for our shared main course to arrive, a few extra nibbles arrived compliments of the kitchen (one of the benefits of Adam, who was running the restaurant floor, recognising me!). We were given a few of the mouth-watering crostini with chorizo, octopus and aioli, which I've also previously enjoyed on the bar menu. But we were also brought out a few cheese crackers, which I'd never tasted before from the bar menu - they had the texture of prawn crackers, but the taste of parmesan. Delicious and moreish.


Given that we'd had oysters and several entrees and intended to order desserts, we'd wisely decided to share just one main course. We'd been intrigued by the sound of the vegetarian one, fatayar pastry filled with globe artichoke, fetta and almonds ($32). The pastry was exceptional - crispy but slightly chewy, and not at all soggy on the underside - and we also really liked the salad on top of shaved fennel and dill.


We eyed the dessert menu. Alas, gone are the ginger granita and the toffee apple dessert that I previously loved, but I was very relieved to see that the ice cream sandwich with vanilla parfait and salted caramel remains. It'll be a sad, sad day if the ice cream sandwich is ever removed from the menu. We couldn't decide between two of the desserts (all of which are $17 or $18), so our eminently capable waiter offered to organise a half serve of two different desserts for us to try. Charming suggestion.

And then they went and sneakily brought out an additional dessert for us to try, compliments of the kitchen!

The additional dessert is described on the menu as "blackberries, banana sorbet, brown sugar and coffee cake". All of which were lovely. What the menu doesn't mention is the amazing "milk jam" that tied the whole dish together. Such a great texture, and that soft cake and banana sorbet were stunning.


The first of the desserts we actually ordered was the one with sheep's milk frozen yoghurt, coconut, poached with peach and black olive nougatine. Don't let the olive thing throw you - I promise you, it WORKS.


The other dessert we'd ordered was the violet ice cream with chocolate ganache and sour cherry. Our waiter had had to persuade me to order it - after a sub-par lavender ice cream experience a few months ago, I wanted to steer clear of "floral" ice cream. But wow am I glad he talked me into it - you MUST try this violet ice cream, the flavour is just magical. I also really loved the elegant ganache and the little pieces of meringue that looked like chips of plasterboard. WIN.


To enjoy with our dessert(s) I'd ordered a glass of Les Larmes Célestes 2004 (Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh), because I'd loved it so much when I had it in December up at Guillaume at Bennelong. Our waiter also took the liberty of bringing us each out a tasting glass of sweet sweet Madeira, to go with the banana sorbet dessert.

Such a memorable meal. Such a great restaurant.

I LOVE the steamed pork buns at Cutler & Co

Cutler & Co
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9419 4888


The steamed pork buns at Cutler & Co are filled with suckling pig and ever-so-slightly caramelised shallots. The suckling pig, with skin removed, has been braised for about 12 hours. The buns are served with black bean and Shanghai chilli vinegar. They are utterly delicious: the closest Melbourne equivalent to the justifiably-famous pork buns I had at Momofuku Ssam in New York when I visited in June.


It just so happens that David Chang, the chef from Momofuku Ssam (my favourite New York restaurant!), will be collaborating with Andrew McConnell (my favourite Melbourne chef!) in creating a very special dinner at Cutler's sister restaurant Cumulus Inc during the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

I CAN'T TELL YOU how much I want to attend that dinner.

The steamed pork buns are $12 and are served on the bar menu at Cutler. I've extolled the virtues of the more formal Cutler restaurant menu before, but allow me now to sing the praises of some of the other 'small eats' dishes on offer in the front bar. On my most recent visit the crostini of chorizo, octopus and aioli ($6) were a mouth-watering spicy/piquant/fresh starter, and the pressed quail terrine ($16) ensorcelled me almost as much as the pheasant terrine at Cumulus Inc did a few months ago.


The wagyu bresaola ($15) is a replica from the Cumulus menu - the fresh squiggly shavings of horseradish continue to complement the beef beautifully. We also ordered a dish of smoked tomato, zucchini flowers, fromage blanc and fresh tarragon ($15), which we loved.


Sigh. Remind me when the tickets for the Chang/McConnell dinner go on sale?

Trippy Taco dinner, Cutler and Co dessert

Trippy Taco
48 Smith Street, Collingwood (map)
9415 7711


Okay, this one will be short and sweet. I had a lovely time when the delightful Miss C and I met up for dinner recently. Our venue of choice was a place I'd read about on Tummy Rumbles and Where's the Beef: Trippy Taco. Yes the name is cringe-worthy, and the minuscule interior is rather basic, but their all-vegetarian Mexican food is very cheap and good.

On my way there on the 86 tram, I rang to ask whether we needed to book. The girl at Trippy Taco: "Oh, it's DEAD here at the moment. You'll be fine getting a table." Um, encouraging!


We shared two dishes, the Taquitos (three rolled-up, crispy corn tortillas with black bean filling topped with guacamole, salsa, cheese, salad and lime) and the Original Trippy Tacos (fresh home-made corn tortillas topped with cheese, black beans, salad, salsa, avocado and a squeeze of fresh lime). Each dish cost only $8.50 and both were simple, fresh and generous.


So, from $8.50 meals with a beer at Trippy Taco...


...to $17 desserts and cocktails at Cutler & Co!

Cutler and Co
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9419 4888


This really was very cheeky of us, but we kept justifying the lavish dessert by reminding ourselves how cheap the rest of the dinner had been. I felt compelled to introduce Miss C to my aperitif obsession du mois, the Aperol Spritz. Noting our fondness for Aperol, the incredibly nice barman then whipped up two incredibly strong Aperol Sours, using Belvedere orange blossom vodka, lemon juice, a hint of vanilla syrup and egg white for the froth. They were sensational.

Just as sensational as the chocolate ice cream sandwich with vanilla parfait and salted caramel ($16, already raved about by me here). Miss C had never had salted caramel before, and she loooved it.


We shared a second dessert too: the toffee apple ($17). The roasted apple was thinly encased in toffee over what turned out to be a sweet reduction of black olive (!), with cubes of cider jelly to the left and a length of spiced shortbread topped with daubs of fromage blanc to the right. What a dish. WHAT A DISH.

Get thee to Andrew McConnell's Cutler & Co, Gertrude Street

Cutler and Co
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9419 4888


Enjoying an Aperol Spritz in the front bar section at Cutler and Co, the latest baby of Andrew "Cumulus Inc" "Three, One, Two" McConnell.

You'll find Cutler and Co on Gertrude Street between Nicholson and Brunswick Streets, at the other end from Ladro, Birdman Eating et al. Yes, it's a restaurant (and a damn fine one at that, as best-friend-K and I discovered last Wednesday night), but it also has a generous bar which can be enjoyed in its own right rather than as a mere prelude to eating in the back dining room.


We couldn't make up our minds about the light fittings: b-f-K thought they looked like mushrooms, I thought they looked like shower caps.


We had an appetiser before our entrées: I insisted we get the pimientos de padrón ($9). Borrowing from Wikipedia, this is what the menu had to say about them:
'Os Pimientos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non' - Galican for 'Padrón peppers, some are hot and some are not'.
The most famous produce of Padrón, which are small green peppers from the capsicum family. They are served fried with olive oil and salt. Most taste sweet and mild, though some are particularly hot and spicy.
All but one of them were sweet and mild and satisfyingly salty, but boy oh boy the single one that was spicy (which I had the "luck" of chomping) brought a tear to the eye!

For her entrée, b-f-K chose the tomato salad with fromage blanc, lemon basil and aged balsamic ($17). As she ordered it I thought to myself that it sounded like exactly the sort of ostensibly basic dish that Andrew McConnell would do really, really well. I was right! The salad was stunning, including black Russian and zebra tomatoes as well as the more common red varieties, and Thai basil and lime basil as well as lemon basil. Shards of rye wafers finished it off.


Given my recent fanaticism for figs while they're in season, I couldn't go past the entrée of wood grilled quail ($20). It too was sensational. Spread on another rectangular plate of pleasing proportions was a smear of parnsip and vanilla purée (!), upon which were heaped fresh figs, leaves, pomegranate seeds, the portions of quail and a curious little pastry cigar.

I bit into the cigar. "Ohmygodb-f-KyouHAVEtotrythisimmediately!" It was made from Tunisian brik pastry and filled with parfait de fois gras. *swoon*


Given that we'd ordered the appetiser and two entrées AND were planning on desserts, we decided to share just the one main course, washed down with an Albariño. We opted for the grilled rock flathead, served with a salad of school prawns with a honey and chardonnay vinaigrette ($36). We'd explained when ordering that we'd be sharing the main, so when it came out it arrived pre-divided on two plates. Aw, bless.

Photo of half below. B-f-K didn't like this one much (she felt the prawns "didn't do much")... while I agree that it didn't quite live up to the entrées, I quite liked the fish mixed with the smear of whipped potato and shellfish reduction with tomato that surrounded it.


When I'd told him that I was going to Cutler and Co, Ed had recommended the ginger granita ($16). Just as well he told me, because it's the sort of dish I probably wouldn't have ordered, but I'm certainly glad that I did!

The ginger granita is served on a bed of creamy coconut tapioca, with fresh lychee and baby basil seeds looking like they're about to sprout tadpoles at any moment (an aside: like salted caramel, baby basil seeds seem to be what all the cool kids are using these days - they're also featured in the smoked trout broth at Attica).

It was the perfect combination of sweet creaminess and refreshing palate cleanser, with a wonderfully clear flavour of fresh ginger. The texture of the basil seeds and tapioca against the icy granita was brilliant.


Aha, but that wasn't all - we also ordered the chocolate ice cream sandwich which came with vanilla parfait and *cough* salted caramel ($16). Completely different to the granita, but equally fabulous. The ice cream sanga was every bit as sweet and indulgent and caramelly as it looks... a must for you dedicated sweet tooths (sweet teeth?) out there. It also went extremely well with the complimentary sticky our lovely waitress brought out for us. :)


So, hie you hence to Andrew McConnell's Cutler and Co: it may be one of the most expensive restaurants on Gertrude Street, but it's very probably also the best.