Two of Australia’s leading wine bars, one menu, lots of fun.
There’s a lot to love about Australia’s wine bars at the moment: convivial service, bottles from both tiny producers and big names, and menus as good as that of any restaurant. How do you top this winning formula? You double down – and that’s exactly what the people behind Embla and Monopole have planned.
Team Embla will bring their Melbourne brand of leisurely drinking and dining to Sydney for one night this month, setting up shop at Monopole for a five-course dinner of shared plates, with chefs Dave Verheul and Brent Savage joining forces in the kitchen.
The menu will be a mix of greatest hits and new dishes, from Monopole’s house charcuterie to Embla’s gently cooked swordfish. Expect to see some of the vegetable cooking Savage has honed at Yellow, plus some meatier dishes – perhaps a lamb neck. Verheul will be remixing a current Embla dessert of blood-orange ice-cream with almond curd and fermented lemon verbena honey, splicing in mandarin ice-cream and elderflower in the honey. Each course will feature two dishes – one from each chef – designed to be shared by the table.
“Brent and I have been friends for years,” Verheul says. “I worked at the old Bentley in Surry Hills back in the day.”
For Sydney diners who keep hearing the name Embla, it’s a chance to see what the wine bar is all about. And with the excellent Bentley group co-owner and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt overseeing the drinks for the evening, it’s also a welcome reminder of the treasures in one’s own backyard.
Embla x Monopole dinner, Sunday 15 October, Monopole, 71a Macleay St, Potts Point, NSW. $120 for five courses plus snacks (drinks extra). Book via monopolesydney.com.au or call (02) 9360 4410.
