It's a long way between decent lattes on the Great Western HWY from Melbourne to Dunkeld. Yes you can find one at the end of a long drive at the Royal Mail Hotel where chef Dan Hunter has put the Grampians on the foodie radar (more of that later). The drive however between Melbourne and Dunkeld seems a particularly long 253 kilometres without a decent coffee to break the journey. Aware of this two innovative couples that made a tree change from the city to country Ararat pulled down the paper on the windows of a former pub on the town's main drag last week to reveal Nectar Ambrosia - a cafe/restaurant offering modern Australian cuisine with a classic Italian twist. Owners Mike and Shannon Di Lisio and Kate Kirkpatrick were busy serving happy customers when we dropped in on our way back from a three day tour of the Grampians. Gasping for a coffee, two decent lattes rapidly appeared on our table thanks to a young and competent barista who was down from the big smoke to help out with the opening.
Chef Alex Barrie was serving up some good looking food and we opted for the tapas menu, which allows you to mix and match various tapas dishes to create your own Share Platter. I asked the waitress if the chef could present a platter of what he considered his best dishes, and despite initial reluctance to make this request of the kitchen, we were a short time later presented with a large square white plate featuring sea salt and schezuan pepper squid, lamb cutlets with Grampians olive oil and a salsa of cherry tomato and shallots, aussie scallops with lemon grass, ginger, honey and chive dressing and eye fillet carpaccio with grana, Manzanillo olives, basil and balsamic dressing. We also had a couple of spiced Italian meatballs with pomodoro sauce all washed down with a local Grampians savignon blanc from Montara.
I know Nectar Ambrosia is going to do well. The owners have pulled together something that was seriously lacking, not only in the town but along the Great Southern Touring route between Halls Gap and Melbourne. And it's a great spot to pick up some local produce and local wines from the providore including Best's and Great Western wines, Savvy spiced shiraz jelly, Mt Zero Olives, Istra small goods, Bellenen Grampians Organics, Michel's Fine Biscuit Company and more. I particularly liked the warm welcome and Michael and Shannon, who also have two young children, were not fazed in the slightest by our four month old's grizzling (to be fair it had been a rather long drive in the car after getting lost trying to find Mt Zero Olives and Ella had clearly had enough).
We wish the team at Nectar Ambrosia the very best of luck and will be sure to stop for a latte or two when passing by next.Will post more on our Grampians journey soon.
