Fine Dining at Lunch Time

Fine dining is a style of eating that usually takes place in expensive restaurants where good food is served to discriminating people.  But it is not always about eating out for dinner as is the common impression. Fine dining restaurants are also a beehive of activities at midday, pandering to the lunchtime crowd of fastidious diners with delightful and dedicated meal courses.  This is true in Melbourne which abounds in restaurants that serve fine diners with an array of fine lunchtime menu. 

The décor of these restaurants feature higher-quality materials with an eye towards the "atmosphere" desired by the restaurateur. The wait staff is usually highly trained and often wears more formal attire.  Fine Dining in Melbourne are almost always small businesses and are generally either single-location operations or have just a few locations. Food portions are visually appealing. Fine dining restaurants have certain rules of dining which visitors are generally expected to follow, often including a dress code.

Typical of the Melbourne restaurants that provide fine dining for lunch are Allegro, Alluvial, Alpino, Amiconi, Bacash, Becco and Bergerac.  They are spread in such places as Collins street, Domain Road in South Yarra, Crossley street and King street and serve lunch food with all sorts of international flavors. 

Here are some of the best-selling foods in Brickmakers Arms Fine Dining in Melbourne lunch menu:

Grilled Chicken Salad    Avocardo, Meredith goats curd, tomato, leaves

Pork Belly Sliders    Aioli, relish, leaves

Spaghetti Amatriciana    Bacon, olives, fresh tomato hint of chilli

Chargrilled Asparagus & Goulburn Smoked Trout Salad  Soft boiled egg, capers, buttermilk & herb dressing

Beer Battered Fish and Chips   Salad, chunky chips, tartare sauce & lemon

Scotch Fillet 300g Riverine Grain Fed, British Breed, NSW

Gnocchi with Slow Cooked Beef Cheek Ragu  Shaved parmesan

Brickmakers Arms Tasting Board  A selection of our favourite entree items, perfect for sharing

Salad of Marinated Buffalo Mozzzarella  Tomatoes, oregano, basil, fennel seed, fried sour dough and extra virgin olive oil

Chicken Schnitzel   Herb & parmesan crumbed

Tempura Zucchini Flowers Herb ricotta, chili jam

Fillet of Cone Bay Barramundi   Salad of MT Zero grains, pistachios, sultanas and broccolini, saffron vinaigrette

 
Chermoula Spiced King Prawns  Aioli, lemon

A Fine Wine Bar in Melbourne

Welcome to the Brickmakers Arms, home of the cocktail elite and discriminating wine connoisseurs. You won’t find drinks better shaken or stirred in Melbourne than at this fine wine bar where bartending has been elevated to an art form, ice is hewn from giant blocks, hair is slick, and the four-ingredient cocktail is king. But the piece de resistance really is its vast collection of fine and rare wines obtained from all four corners of the earth.

At Brickmakers Arms, you get the opportunity to taste some the world’s finest wines. The wine cellar is a stunning display of premium wines that seats up to 20 guests at a time.  Whether you come solely for cocktails, fine dining or both, the wine bar is the place to be. 

 

Here is a list of the wine collection in this wine bar in Melbourne, with a description of the characteristics and origin of each wine selection:

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, NZ. Cloudy Bay has produced a Sauvignon Blanc of vibrant intensity. The Characteristically uplifting aromas of ripe lime and grapefruit, nectarine, papaya, mango and floral notes.

Mitchell Watervale Riesling, Clare Valley, SA. Intense aromatic Riesling fruit flavours are the hallmarks of this wine.

Cantina Zaccagnini, il Bianco, Italy. Pale straw yellow with green highlights, its bouquet is intense and persistent following through to ripe apples, peach and a hint of almond biscuit on the palate.

Pink Claw Grenache Rose, Heathcote, VIC.  It's a crisp, semi dry style with a vibrant, red berry character. The Pink Claw is a variation of the Red Claw to help awareness of breast cancer. A portion of the profits from every bottle of Pink Claw goes towards supporting women affected by breast cancer

Te Mata Cabernet Merlot, Hawkes Bay, NZ. Te Malta make some sublime Bordeaux style red wine and wonderful floral aromas with intense blackberry, currant and dark plum flavours

Poliziano Chianti DOCG, Tuscany, Italy. A fresh, fruity wine with a wonderful vinosity and suppleness, making it ideal for an early drink. It's and ideal to accompany tasting board, pasta dishes, risotto or duck

Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne. Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne is the epitome of class and elegance from the house of Roederer. A super limited and hard to find top echelon Champagne, Cristal is a 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay blend that was harvested in near perfect conditions. The resulting wine is a blend of vineyards from the finest vineyards of Montagne de Reims, the Vallée de la Marne and the Côte des Blancs

2004 Vintage Dom Perignon Champagne.  Dom Pérignon is the most famous Champagne in the world, and for good reason. The bouquet sparkles with delicate fresh violets in a setting of white peaches. The soft delicate flavours continue while the senses are tickled by the most delicate of fine bubbles. Though this is such a fine delicate wine, the complexity is astounding, along with its length.

Te Mata Elston. Elston ’12 has a brilliant, pale lemon colour, with inviting aromas of golden grapefruit, toasted brioche, brazil nuts and popcorn. The palate shows immediate characters of ripe nectarine and nougat, together with both the sweetness and acidity of fresh pineapple that contribute to its long, fine finish.

1999 Giaconda, Chardonnay. A perfect growing season and vintage has provided a wine of significant depth. The 1999 Chardonnay continues the theme established by the 1996, and in our opinion, surpasses it both in terms of intensity and complexity. In a glass, the wine looks rich and enticing. The vibrant glow of white gold and green suggests richness. Hazelnuts, oatmeal, fig and white peach meld with the oak and "dirt" to provide an intoxicating aroma. Creamy and intense with lingering spicy oak, the core flavours of white peach and oatmeal build and build on the palate. As is the custom, the oak character is perceptible at this stage, but the sheer explosive intensity of the wine will in time ensure complete harmony.

Torbreck ‘The Factor' Shiraz. A homage to the great old Shiraz vines of the Barossa Valley and the growers who painstakingly tend and nurture them each year. The Factor displays the concentration & fruit purity that only the most meticulous farming can achieve. Delicate scents of wild blackberries, pipe smoke and pepper are supported by a dark core of espresso roast, black currants and coal.

Te Mata Coleraine, Cabernet Merlot. A deep crimson colour with intense aromas of blackberry syrup, espresso, marzipan, and dried roses. The palate has a concentrated core of perfectly ripe blackcurrants, with layers of damson plums and chocolate leading to long, powerful, tannins and refreshing acidity and closed with a natural cork !

Torbreck 'Run Rig' Shiraz. RunRig, although wonderfully aromatic, is a wine that exhibits so much power and latent richness that it could easily be mistaken for the hugely concentrated wines sourced from the sun drenched hill of Hermitage (the historic home of Syrah and some of the worlds most powerful and longest living wines

2005 Penfold Grange Hermitage. 2005 may not be the most profound Grange, nor will it be the most long-lived, but, oh my goodness, is there some complexity tucked into its crevasses! It is not the blockbuster of 2002 and doesn’t have the stamina and hidden secrets of 2004 (which took hours to reveal itself) but there is no question that this is a great vintage for Grange, as exuberant and expressive as any young Grange I have seen. In no way precocious or simplistic, this is a wine with a plethora of layers. The bouquet is particularly lifted and spicy this year, with violets and mixed spice hovering over fruit mince and dark chocolate oak. In time, coal, black olive and Satsuma plum aromas unravel.