At bottleshop-bar Le Pub, the latest spot from restaurateur Con Christopoulos, two dishes are instant classics, including a sandwich that feels built for pairing with a cold beer.
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There are two things that I’m known for ranting about. One is why we, as a species, are so obsessed with intelligent life on other planets when we haven’t yet learned to communicate with octopuses. The other is breakfast sandwiches.
I contend that approximately 90 per cent of Australian breakfast sandwiches are ruined by some kind of tomato jam. Tomato jam is too sweet. Besides, when they’re good, tomatoes themselves are delicious. People should use fresh tomato or no tomato. The best breads for breakfast sandwiches are often not the ones used – I prefer a southern American-style biscuit or an English muffin. Australia’s McMuffins are spoiled by the meat. I could go on.
So it’s funny that the best breakfast sandwich in Melbourne – one that meets all of my ridiculous requirements – is being served at a restaurant that isn’t open for breakfast.
Le Pub, which opened a couple of months back on the corner of Hardware Lane and Little Bourke Street, serves a sproingy toasted muffin with cotechino (a gutsy Italian pork sausage, sourced from Donati’s in Carlton), a fried egg and sharp comte cheese, with no tomato jam in sight. It’s a decadent mess of a thing, fat on fat on fat, and one of those rare food items that has the potential to become iconic. And it’s not the only dish on Le Pub’s menu that might earn that distinction.
At its core, Le Pub is a bar and bottleshop where you can eat. Owned by Con Christopoulos and Joshua Brisbane, the duo behind French Saloon, Kirk’s, The European and more, the space is odd and a bit labyrinthian. Two adjoining spaces at street level hold a bar with counter seating and a bottleshop with tables in it; downstairs there’s a cellar with ancient hewn-stone walls that was only discovered during construction and where there are a few tables for larger parties.
You order from the bar or at the bottleshop register, and you can pluck a bottle from the wall or fridge (holding about 250 labels in all) and drink it in-house for a $25 corkage fee. There are Australian craft beers on tap, and the vibe is decidedly loose and casual. You’ll have to push past a jumble of bar stools (often holding people) to get to the toilet, and many nights the bar is standing-room-only. It feels instantly classic, much like that egg sandwich.
Executive chef Luke Fraser (who also oversees the kitchens at French Saloon and Kirk’s) channels the kind of cooking that marks the best restaurants in London − British with a touch of French technique − and then puts it in a counter meal context. Nibbles like classic potato cakes are ramped up, in this case with salt cod brandade; a perfectly tender and crumbed chicken schnitzel comes with a side of snappy green beans and a wedge of lemon.
There are wine bar-appropriate snacks, too, like butter-poached leeks with a hazelnut and truffle pesto that tastes of actual truffle, not the fake stuff. Cured fish of the day – snapper most recently – is layered with a tarragon and shallot dressing that has just the right touch of sweetness.
The whole menu is smart and drink-friendly, and much of it is endearingly old-school including calves’ liver with bacon, sherry and cabbage.
The non-breakfast star of the show is the oxtail, snail and bone marrow pie, which is stupidly rich, exceedingly fun and bloody delicious. A bone protrudes from the pie’s centre, and you’re encouraged to lift it out and funnel the marrow into the pie, mixing it with the oxtail and snail filling. It becomes a melty amalgamation of three types of meatiness, each complementing the other. It’s so ridiculous and fun, and I’m 100 per cent sold.
Le Pub’s utility is varied – it works as a knockoffs location, as a great casual first-date spot, as the place where you grab a bottle of wine on your way home from work. Comfort is not its forte – at best you’ll get a chair with a back, but more likely you’ll be on a stool of some sort. While the staff are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the food and wine, this is a bar/pub, with all the DIY ethos that comes with that style of service. There are no bookings, you sit where you fit, you order and pay as you go.
But the food is a blast, the wine is affordable and the people are nice. Yes, please.
The low-down
Atmosphere: Classy but boisterous pub meets bottleshop
Go-to dishes: Braised leeks ($18); cotechino, comte and egg muffin ($12); oxtail, snail and bone marrow pie ($30)
Drinks: Basic spirits, great Australian beer selection, wine shop with a wide variety of Australian and European labels that you can drink in-house ($25 corkage applies)
Cost: About $100 for two, excluding drinks
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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