Celebrated Kyneton restaurateur Daniel Saligari and former Quay chef Rob Kabboord have teamed up to open an ambitious little jewel of a restaurant on Piper Street. What was once Saligari’s venue Marchesa, is now home to what Kabboord likes to call a neo bistro. Thirty seats, a good-looking room, ceramics by Andrei Davidoff, all the good things.
What does “neo bistro” mean, exactly? Context helps. Take a closer look at Kabboord’s CV and you see that as well as his years as Peter Gilmore’s 2IC at Quay, the finest of Sydney fine diners in its day, his extensive experience at the very pointy end of the business is complemented by Merricote, the bistro he and his partner, maître d’ extraordinaire Bronwyn Kabboord, ran to great acclaim in High Street, Northcote for many years. Then add in a dash of his Dutch heritage, add a touch of Italian from Saligari and you’ve got a menu that’s comforting enough for those cold Kyneton nights but special enough to make it something of a destination for diners for further afield.
“You can expect dishes such as a wintery carrot salad with creamy feta, ice plant and smoky almonds, or a great piece of cod with pearl barley, pickled celery and Portarlington mussels,” says Kabboord. He has long been a name in the deep state of beer in Australia, so proper brews are amply represented on the drinks list, and in the kitchen. Stout from Boatrocker, say, deployed as a braising medium for local pork with chutney and daikon. Dessert? How about a Dutch mess: a trifle made from orange or almond cake served with ricotta and lychee.
Wines run to 80 bins, with great Victorian wines at the fore alongside some European benchmarks, plus the beers and a concise cocktail offering.
And the question on everyone’s lips? “It’s pronounced “ROO-eh,” says Saligari. It’s the German word for calm, apparently, and also a reference to Carlsruhe, the original sheep station in the region, named in the 1830s by Charles Ebden after the German city where he had studied. And the umlaut? “We just added that because it felt right.”
Rühe, 58 Piper St, Kyneton, 0477 967 359, ruhe-restaurant.com, @ruhe_kyneton