Cooking with wood fire is very hot right now, celebrated everywhere from Chef’s Table episodes to competitive barbecue competitions. Never one to buck a trend, Melbourne’s also having a moment with all things flamed, charred and smoky. Blazing the trail of late are Scott Pickett’s Matilda and now South Melbourne’s Half Acre.
Tel Aviv-born chef Eitan Doron is stoking the flames under a compact, seasonal menu that is – bar the pizzas and wood-fired breadsticks with smoked butter (a must-order) – easy on the gluten. The flame-licked veg dishes are a smart opener. There’s a pimped-up version of a Caprese salad, with wedged oven-dried tomatoes, copious amounts of buttery stracciatella di bufala and basil given sharpness and heat with olive tapenade and burnt chilli. Well-charred cabbage punctuated with torched goat’s cheese under a blanket of bottle-green chimichurri delivers an eruption of texture and flavour in each bite. The combo of blistered corn, smoked almonds, mint and parsley explodes in your mouth like a Mexican pinata thanks to that zingy chilli-lime dressing. And there are whiffs of Doron’s Israeli roots in dishes like the cauliflower (another culinary buzzword), roasted and fine-tuned with dukkah, tahini and parsley
The proteins – all free-range, grass-fed and/or wild caught – follow a similar formula: a baby snapper fat from a herbed salsa, barberries and olives is wood-grilled whole, while lamb cutlets and smoked eggplant come with labne for cooling effect. Consider the half chicken, served butterflied and deboned, its scorched salty skin tempered by the curried pumpkin emulsion, with discs of wood-fired kohlarabi, peas and coriander adding a summery feel.
Wood fire calls for pizza. Here it comes in six versions (three meat, three veg) and is also available to take away. The dough is slightly dense and not as chewy as a textbook Neapolitan offerings, but toppings mostly stick to tradition.
Even the desserts feel the burn – charred pineapple finds its perfect bedfellows in pecan crumble and yoghurt sorbet – and the list of mostly Australian wines similarly compliments the fire-tinged menu. Case in point: shirazs ripe in tannins, black fruit and coffee notes; and toasty pinot noirs.
But don’t let this focus on cooking style distract you from how beautiful this place is (never has the #dreamweddingvenue been more appropriate). In the glass-domed, Scandi-inspired restaurant, a flood of natural light washes over Parisian bistro chairs encircling marble tables, comfy banquettes, and an open kitchen with its coal-fire grill and wood-fired oven at the centre. Amidst all that style we did find substance, which is very good news for South Melbourne.