Victorian Wineries

Fun & Festive Grazing

How time flies, 2013 certainly was the year of hospitality moving and shaking!

December and January is a special time of year, we all catch up with loved ones, colleagues, and friends to celebrate our achievements whilst looking forward to another exciting year! This took us to The Emerson, a towering atmospheric Bunagalow 8 inspired spacecraft of entertainment without the annoying New York door policy!

It’s a friendly playground of beautiful people having the time of their life. Affectionate, approachable, and skilled front of house keep this venue’s feet shuffling on the ground with a sense of devoted confidence that I haven’t seen in a new venue for while.

Whilst making our dinner booking, we were told quite considerately that it’s not your typical dining venue but more of club / bar / eatery, and that it will be noisy…really noisy, as it’s Christmas you know! We did and that’s why we were pleased about visiting The Emerson. It is the type of venue you can’t change when you get there folks! Which was absolutely perfect for our 6 guests who were made up of actors, entertainers, and high flyers in the music biz.

The dinning is roof top with a Ku De Ta / Nikki beach vibe, without the pool! Generous bars snake around the venue of mixed seating, mostly day beds, high bars, and the odd booth. It is a kind of ordered chaos!! But it works in terms of a frenzy of activity, people watching, and consistent service.

The menu is self explanatory and has that cont’d theme of polite friendly service by way of a blurb introducing the credentialed chef and free spirited grazing policy – which is a good idea in a busy joint! Drinks lists were oddly separate, thankfully we had a booking and our own personal service.

Dishes range from $5 for a single, and simply perfect, SA Coffin Bay oyster topped w fresh horseradish, $6 for a lamb chop with salsa verde, then stepping up to a cheeky $16 for school prawns, $19 for a noteworthy grilled calamari number, to $30 for a 2013 inspired, must eat, shapely and voluptuous, lobster roll served in a not so glamorous Andrews hamburger style brown paper bag! The roll’s filling was generous and well prepared, however we all agreed that next year we would like to see a smaller, sexier, and more sociable version in 2014.

We ordered, as the menu had instructed, in stops and starts throughout the evening accompanied by various exotic drinks. The drinks list, like the crowd, is the right mix of friendly and fierce. The service, unbelievably energetic, happy, and gorgeous. The cooking and produce is top shelf, so you will pay restaurant prices as it is restaurant quality ingredients cooked by one of our best young chefs!

Is it dinner? Probably for some, but not for most! However, The Emerson is a great venue to socialise and indulge with a group of like minded friends and deserves to be a success. There are some obvious climatic challenges for the venue and the quality and price of the food won’t be in everyone’s groove but it is early days, with nearly a whole year to evolve and entertain all over again!

Go for a big night out you deserve it!