Mauritian flavours. Natural wine. Proximity to the 57 tram. Boire takes everything you like about Manzé and gives you more of it, right over the road. Chef Nagesh Seethiah and his business partner, Osman Faruqi, opened Manzé four years ago, and in that time the tiny but mighty North Melbourne restaurant has built a reputation for great food and a fresh way of doing things, gathering a faithful following along the way. The vibe is heady, the prices are fair. Just about the only challenge – for diners, at least – has been getting a seat.
Now you’ve got twice as many chances. Boire is the lighter, brighter, snackier complement to Manzé, and while the focus is drinks, and the main food offering is a sort of greatest-hits retrospective of the smaller, more shareable things from Manzé menus past: taro fritters, lamb ribs, all the good stuff. Expect Mt Zero olives pickled in turmeric and chilli, a raw tuna standby partnered with seasonal fruit and something spicy (this month: honeydew melon and a fermented honeydew hot sauce), and the return of the outstanding lentil and smoked prawn soup.
And then there’s the exciting new string to the bow: sandwiches.
Mauritius, says Seethiah, has a similar bread tradition to Vietnam. With that in mind he’s been working with his friends and neighbours at Bread Club to develop a Melbourne answer to the island’s pain maison. “What they’ve come up with is so delicious,” he says. “Not too crusty, really soft on the inside and a nice-sized handful.” You’ll have two options: a jammy egg-salad number with pickled beetroot and chilli, and one loaded up with chicken cooked over fire on a rotisserie.
Drinks take that same more-of-what-you-fancy line. “At Manzé, we’ve only been ever able to list about 25 per cent of the wines we actually own at Manzé,” says Seethiah. Boire will open things up considerably. “We’ve got beautiful wines from Roger and Sue [Roger McShane and Sue Dyson, principals of natural import pioneers Living Wines] alongside every vintage of wine made by Andy and Claire Ainsworth from Bar Merenda, for example, and all of the wines Niki [Nikolovska] and Tim [Byrne] have made at Babche. Lots of beautiful wines, basically, that we’re excited to bring across the road.”
Boire opens Thursday 28 August, lunch noon-2pm, Wed-Fri, drinks and dinner from 5pm, Tues-Sat; 8 Errol St, North Melbourne
By Pat Nourse