Last weekend we had a night on the town, hitting the city to check out the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.  We’d bought tickets to the opening party being put on by Tommy Collins, which we had heard could put on a great event.  The party was at the Pop Up Patch, which is a space where people can rent out great big planter boxes to grow there own vegies and herbs situated on the carpark roof top at Fed Square.  The line up for the evening looked amazing with six courses created by world reknowned chefs.

We checked into Crown Promenade then wandered along the River Walk towards Fed Square.  When we arrived at the Pop Up Patch, we saw that Burn City Smokers had their new Brisket Bar all set up.  (These guys catered for us earlier this year and their Brisket Burger is ah-mazing!)  We were a little early but the line quickly grew.  At 6.30pm they opened the doors.

 
Fairy lights and little vegie gardens created the perfect setting for a great night of food and drink.  On arriving we were greeted with a Four Pillars G & T which was pretty refreshing given the 36 degree day Melbourne was having. 

The food for the night was based around what these super chefs would cook at home for comfort food.  

Dan really enjoyed Analiese Gregory’s pigeon pastilla with caramelised onions, fig and foie gras.

My favourite was definitely the dessert by Paul Cunningham – Peach and honey crumble.  I may have even snuck in a second one.  

 
With the warm night in Melbourne liquid consumption was a high priority and the drinks list didn’t disappoint with Gin cocktails, wines supplied by vinomofo and beer supplied by colonial brewing.  Now I’m not usually a Chardy drinker but I quite enjoyed the Arcadia Bohemia Chardonnay.

What a great night!

The next morning, after a kid free sleep in, started with coffee of course.  The Urban Dairy which was the hub for the festival, was serving up a St Ali brew which was a big thumbs up.  We decided to hit the historic Degraves st for breakfast, where we ate at Degraves Espresso which was your standard affair.  Although being very busy the service was good and fast.  

After a quick flinders treat doughnut from doughnut time we decided to head towards Fed square again to sample some of the other highlights of the food and wine festival.  Adriano Zumbo had a pop up going with a great little menu but after waiting for awhile we realised they were having electricity problems so we decided to move on.

The Queen Vic Market traders had a small set up outside of the Arts Centre where we tried
Iced Masala Chai Tea, some chesses and a Portugese Custard Tart from Noisette Bakery.

We then wandered back towards the casino where there was a setup from Oakridge wines and Pizza Fest by some of Melbourne top pizza makers.  We sampled the grapes from Oakridge Wines.  Who knew these were pinot gris grapes?  Not what I was expecting.  

At the Oakridge setup I bumped into Geogia from masterchef and although being star struck and lost for words I managed to get a photo.

And we couldn’t leave without trying the pizza.

Looking forward to next years now.