Vieux Carre and the hurt locker

Dining and friends is a solid combo. Art deco and pubs is a solid combo too, and we were happy as clams to head to the Court House Hotel for all 'o that. What an awesome pub! Give me dark wood and white table cloths over and over and over again.

We were probably a touch loud and inappropriate for the emptying dining room (no, we weren't one of those tables) but the food was great - I made short work of perfectly rare kangaroo fillet with finger lime and lovingly sliced blood plum, and the little terrine I managed to poach from my lovely lady was a cracking combo with fig paste and crostini.

Mains time was fun, and I got to monopolise the delicious Chestnut Hill chardonnay (go and buy some right away!) for my fish while the kids went red meat/red wine. A couple of great bream fillets on tender braised celeriac weren't, to my pleasant surprise, over-powered by a well weighted pesto.

Our waiter may have been a touch down in the mouth, but he made us all feel very cosy by pouring us ridiculously large measures of Calvados and Cognac when we were cheesing. A fitting end to a great dinner, but alas not quite filling enough to send us home! So it was that we cabbed it swiftly across town to the notorious Black Pearl.

If you wanna start your day like a fresh fish (and by that I mean; clear eyed and not smelling) avoid repeated rounds of the tasty, tasty Vieux Carre cocktail. Cognac, rye whisky, sweet vermouth, DOM Benedictine and bitters stirred thoughtfully sounds great, but will place you squarely in the hurt locker the next day - and i have to do it again tonight!

Watch out for Broadsheet, I'm covering Melbourne Food & Wine festival's Beast on the Block. Let the butchery begin.

Adi