Melitta Next Door is everything you love about Dani and Oska Whitehart’s Carlton cocktail spot, Bar Bellamy, except in a more casual setting with an expanded Mediterranean-inspired menu. And in a boon for middle Rathdowne Street, you can now get your hot little hands around some of the city’s best cocktails from a very modest $14.
Here’s Dani Whitehart with what you might like to order at Melitta Next Door.
How did you decide on the type of food you were going to put on the menu?
Our chef, Lorena Corso, had a pretty good idea of what she wanted on the opening menu before the team signed contracts. Particularly the lamb arrosticini. We all went for coffee and were talking about what the menu could look like and Lorena was telling us about these skinny lamb skewers that are huge in Abruzzo. They’re seasoned with salt and generally left very simple so the quality of meat can talk for itself. She was saying that traditionally they are served in a terracotta carafe and people get like 10 of them and just sit there snacking away. They’re not huge, they’re thin, salty skewers with well rendered layers of fat. And as she was waxing lyrical about it we were like “yep, that’s going on the menu”. So far it’s been our best-selling dish and I couldn’t think of anything better than sitting in the sun with a crisp glass of white wine with a plate of them. This style of eating and drinking informed the menu, it leans into getting a bunch of different skewers and a bottle of wine to sit in the sun and enjoy with some mates.
Which dish best captures the Melitta Next Door vibe?
The flatbread is a must, with spring onion whipped butter (or add some cheeky anchovies if that’s your poison). I could eat 10 of them as well, but I wouldn’t because I would want to keep room for everything else. Definitely order it along with the goat stew. The flatbread is pan-fried then finished off on the barbecue. It’s crispy, salty and fluffy and eating it with a bit of the rich and well-spiced goat stew has become a staff favourite; a guest even said it’s like the best souvlaki they’ve had.
I’m here for a good time not a long time.
Grab our take on the Milano Torino, the ‘Mel-ito’ – we take the classic Campari and vermouth mixa and infuse it with tangelos and other citrus. You can add gin to it to make it a Negroni, or add prosecco to make it a Sbagliato. I personally love adding beer to make it an Americano Perfecto. It’s refreshing, a perfect balance of bitter and sweet and is a great drink to eat with.
I would then go for some quick skewers. The ox tongue with honey sesame cumquat glaze is insane. I would hang out in the standing area, smash a plate of skewers and be one my way.
Got anything light and fresh?
Go seafood always. It’s protein but doesn’t leave you rethinking your life decisions.
The smoked and pickled mussels with chilli and ricotta has it all a balance of sweetness and acidity from the mussels, the spice of chilli and creamy ricotta. We’re working with Harvest Stack to get in fish that’s super fresh and straight out of the ocean so it will change regularly. That or the raisin and caper stuffed squid that’s also finished over the barbecue – a bit more substantial but a real show stopper.
Wash it down with a Ranch Water – our take combines both tequila and mezcal that’s washed with makrut lime oil, then combined with a lime cheong using spent husks from Bellamy, a touch of manzanilla sherry, some black pepper tincture, acid-adjusted verjus and a good lick of salt water for dilution. This is all force-carbonated and garnished with a lime wedge dusted in pepper. It’s full of flavour but super moreish and works really well with the sweetness of the fish, peppers and the smoke of the grill.
What if I like tasty food but don’t eat animals?
We’ve got you covered – at the moment my favourite vegan dish is the kohlrabi skewer. Taking cues more from France with a fermented chestnut purée and an apple vinaigrette to cut through the richness. The kohlrabi is finally sliced, marinated and of course gets a go on the barbecue. Name me a more iconic duo than apples and chestnuts. I’ll wait.
Melbourne is obsessed with your cocktails. Why are they so good? And can we expect similar magic at Melitta Next Door?
A big thing we focus on at Bar Bellamy is stacking flavours. If you want strawberry in the drink, for example, how many different ways can you inject that fruit into the drink? Whether that be a strawberry mistelle, with a strawberry cheong and a strawberry ferment. We love drinks that appear simple and clean but that escalation of flavour is present so it feels like you’re biting into a whole bit of fruit. Which is something we’ve taken over to Melitta though the execution may appear different.
We’re focusing on maintaining quality drinks but with quicker service. So, we have some cocktails from the tap, Esky or freezer. This means we don’t have any shakers, we’re not stirring down any cocktail you call for. We’ve got a tight, succinct menu that is designed to be dispensed quickly which means we can make it more affordable for the person drinking it. As we have a Mediterranean food focus here we’re definitely playing with more salt in drinks and that bitter and sweet balance which whets the appetite.
The wine list leans into Mediterranean varieties that are made locally with a bit of a look towards Italian and lo-fi wines. Fin Wines are bringing the party with two options on tap, and we’re rotating one wine producer weekly as a spotlight on what they’re making each week. We’ve priced our bottles lower than we would at Bellamy so it allows for some great value on getting something that takes your eye without breaking the bank.
Oska always says that the coldest beer is from an Esky – it’s part of the reason we had a bar program put together around a massive one that’s sitting built into the bar. Longnecks are in there, gluten-free options and some funky stuff is in there. We even have Messina Cristalle di Sale which is a Sicilian lager with salt. They’re drinks to eat with but the techniques and our approach to drinks has definitely come over to Melitta Next Door.
What if we really want to go big and go crazy. What have you got for us?
The aim of Melitta is to have an offering which is affordable, we don’t have anything too crazy. But you could run the gauntlet and get something from every section of the menu – and it still wouldn’t be leaving you broke.
Start with a Meli-to, some flatbread, pickles, panelle and olives. Once you’ve knocked that out it’s wine time. A one-litre bottle of skinsy chardonnay from Case Vecchie in Lombardy with Sicilian sausage, mussels and a stack of arrosticini. For mains, go with the goat stew and some charred seasonal greens seasoned with fermented chilli honey to go with some A.Rodda tempranillo from Beechworth. Finish up with the Coffee Crema (more on this below) and a caramelised custard with shiitake, and a tangelo granita. I know I would be full and happy after that.
And to close?
Two things that are no-brainer.
Number one: order yourself the Coffee Crema, our take on an Espresso Martini and inspired by the La Dominicana from Oska Whitehart’s time at The Everleigh. It has a blend of rum and rye whiskey, ratafia (a fortified cherry wine, like vermouth but with cherries), Maurin Quina, coffee liqueur, cold-drip coffee and a touch of crème de cacao. It’s all batched up and with cocoa butter to round everything out while adding a touch of fruity cacao flavours. This is put in the freezer until ice cold, and finally topped with a kirsch-infused cream.
Number two: the caramelised custard with shiitake mushroom and tangelo granita. The shiitake gives it a touch of earthiness so the dish isn’t overtly sweet and the citrusy granita provides a delicious pop of freshness. Again it was a dish that Lorena knew she wanted on the menu, once we tried it we didn’t need much convincing. But all that aside – it’s just yummy.
Melitta Next Door, 160 Rathdowne St, Carlton, open 4pm-10pm Tues-Thurs, 4pm-11pm Fri-Sat, @melitta.nextdoor