The Man from Mosel River

The town

When on vacation on the farm (Two Hills Vineyard), we hardly visit the big town, i.e. Melbourne, just about an hour and a half south of Glenburn. This time the girls needed new passports and therefore also new visa, and Margit also needed to get one. Therefore we had to collect the items but planned to combine it with meeting old friends over a pleasurable lunch in town. The Thai consulate people are the friendliest on earth and were very helpful. We were in a joyous mood. The girls took zillions of pictures from the car: when country folks visit town!

After our business was completed we made our way to North Melbourne. Libertine, the French restaurant, where I had indulged in wonderful French cuisine earlier this year, was our object of desire. It is easy to find. Just drive along Victoria Street until you reach the house number 500. If you get to Errol Street you have just passed it. Find a parking and walk.

The diners (Helen, Tony, Lucy, Charlotte, me, Margit and Joe)

We arrived ahead of time and took a stroll through the neighbourhood with its many restaurants and small local shops. Margit insisted on buying some cigars for me. Good ones are hard to find in the country side.

Our friends – Tony, Helen and Joe – had already assembled when we finally made it to Libertine. What a great reunion over an excellent meal and some good wine awaited us here.

I like the Libertine menu since it allows you to combine your preferences. It was a bit hard for the girls, though. We usually have Italian and Asian food at home, and therefore most of the dishes on offer were rather very unusual; “raffine” as the French might say, more elaborate might describe it as well.

Libertine had joined the recent campaign for the promotion of Victorian agricultural product: “Put Victoria on your table”. All the ingredients for the various dishes cam from the state of Victoria. As a person believing in free trade and global markets, this type of promotion is not my favourite one.

I find that Libertine’s two- and three course-meals are moderately priced. If you dine out in the Yarra Valley, for instance, you have to fork out much more for a comparable meal than here in the middle of town.

The great surprise was that there was no French wine coming with the meal (all ingredients Victorian of course so how could there be French wine?). Instead, the wines came from the Yarra Valley. We were delighted to see two Yering Farm Wines, the ‘2008 Run Rabbit Run Sauvignon Blanc’ and the ‘2004 Foxtrot Cabernet’ made by Alan Johns, who coincidentally also makes our Two Hills wines. Both wines were a good choice for this kind of cuisine. The SB was fruity and crisp, the Cabernet round and well balanced.

Some of us had the Port Arlington mussels…

…followed by the “Marmite Dieppoise” with Port Phillip Bay scallops.

Others choose the beef which came from Gippsland (apologies for the bad photo above).

Joe went a la carte and ordered the hare. Libertine is famous for the quality of its game.

The girls ordered a la carte as well and went for assorted fish.

For the ones of us who did not have to drive, the Yering Farm Wines, were like a dessert. But we had some sweets afterwards just that I did not take any photos. The time was running faster than usual (that’s how it is with good friends and good food). We enjoyed the atmosphere, the warm hospitality and the friendly staff at Libertine as long as we could but finally had to part company and say good bye to our friends.

Until we meet again, maybe at Libertine (very likely indeed). In a rather joyous mood we returned to the vineyard in Glenburn.

The casual visitor to Melbourne, however, should not waste time searching for a good place to eat excellent food. Just go to Libertine, and you’ll be right mate.

Address:
Libertine‎
500 Victoria St, North Melbourne VIC 3051, Australia‎ – (03) 9329 5228‎
Rated 4.1 out of 5.0 16 reviews

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Restaurant Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.