June 13, 2008: Cafe Vue - Friday Cocktail Night

Update 27/1/2019: Cafe Vue has closed down.

I'm not the superstitious type at all, but my Friday the 13th was looking pretty unlucky. I was sent to Canberra for the day by my boss, to present a project I knew nothing about to a group of suits I'd never met. My flight home should have been just early enough for me to take a taxi straight from the airport to a much-anticipated reservation for Cafe Vue's Friday cocktail night.

I first read about Cafe Vue's cocktail nights on Melbourne Gastronome. Five cocktails and five small plates for $75, and at one of Melbourne's most prestigious eating empires! It was mystifyingly good value for (admittedly a lot of) money and as I perused their website, I was a little disappointed that "vegetarian option available" wasn't discreetly printed anywhere. A couple of days after mentioning it on Claire's blog, she sent me a private message assuring me that they did indeed offer a vegetarian option - hooray! We eagerly set a date with Jo-Lyn and Mike for cocktail craziness, long before my boss even mentioned our nation's capital.

And so on Friday afternoon I arrived at Canberra airport, ready for my homeward journey, more than an hour early. My notes were written up quickly enough and I had plenty of time to watch the light change outside as planes to and from Sydney were delayed and cancelled. Eventually these delays flowed on to other flights, with mine shifting back 20 minutes. By the time it boarded, 20 minutes had stretched to 40 minutes. The unhappy inner monologue began: I'd gotten up at 5am, taken on a job no-one wanted, even while under unusually high pressure to complete my own work, and my reward was missing out on this special dinner I'd been so looking forward to. By the time my plane navigated its way through Melbourne's fog I was 80 minutes late and resolving to go home instead. I would surely have missed two or three dishes by the time I made it to the city and what was the point? I was tired and cranky. I called Michael and he insisted that I should come for whatever dishes were left - we would have to foot the bill regardless of whether or not I showed.

Thank goodness I did. The staff had shifted our service to the end of their rounds to accommodate me. My three dining companions had ordered some extra early drinks and were lingering over their first cocktail when I arrived. Before I'd finished my second potty-mouthed sentence about my day, a DIY martini was set before me. In the glass - chilled rye vodka. On the side - pipettes of cold water and French dry vermouth for the experimental development of one's own ideal ratio. A green olive or lemon rind to finish. "You have no idea how much I need this," I said gratefully to the waiter. He looked me up and down and replied, "I think I do".

And vegos, you wanna know something really cool? At Friday cocktail night, we get our food direct from the Vue de Monde kitchen. Omnivores don't.

The first such plate was this King Brown risotto, with cep air and tarragon emulsion. This double-barrelled mushroom hit - so intense and earthy, with the strength to match the potent martini. Tasted separately, the tarragon emulsion had a complementary flavour but I otherwise lost it in the mix.

Boy, that martini hit the spot! By the time my second plate arrived, my tension had melted and my grudges vanished. Vue de Monde was clearly making the most of mushroom season, serving us cep mushroom broth with horseradish air and a cep tuille. The broth was incredibly viscous and rich, surely containing some kind of thickening agent. In comparison the tuille was crisp and paper thin, like a sliver of golden filo pastry, though it was composed primarily of mushroom! The perfect counterbalance of textures. The horseradish didn't make much of an impression.

Providing an acidity to cut through the rich broth was the "About Thyme" cocktail. Terrible name, incredible cocktail! Cytrus vodka, honey, thyme sugar syrup, orange and lemon juice, soda and ice. The thyme wasn't apparent to start, but bruising the sprigs a little added a whole new dimension to this drink.

Our next plate contained dehydrated tomato, parmesan mousse, bean sprouts, black olive oil and and crisp brioche crumbs. Always a fan of pairing tomato with cheese, I was delighted by this take on some of my favourite flavours. I also heretically compared the parmesan mousse to my guiltiest pleasure of last week.

The accompanying cocktail was the Rye Flip, or "Sultana Bran in a glass", as the bartender joked. Rye vodka, whiskey, sherry, muscat and a whole egg whipped to a froth, with an ornamental coffee bean floating in the centre. It was a sweet and creamy concoction that I enjoyed more on its own rather than in combination with the tomato-and-cheese plate.

Our final savoury course was a plate of smoked vegetables, presented with a covering dish to contain the smoke rising from a piece of coconut charcoal. Amazing! Also appearing were meltingly soft baby beetroots, cauliflower cous cous and some super-smoky babaganoush. While it reminded me of dishes we've previously eaten at Interlude and Attica, Vue de Monde had something new to offer, with the charcoal being completely edible.

With our smoky veges we slurped Belebu-Rharb Sours. I could taste the bitter orange and orange blossom water separately and distinctly, and there was also lemon and lime juice and a frothed egg white in the mix. Though they're not scrawled in my notes, I'm sure that rhubarb and pomegranate were also somehow involved.

Dessert arrived without a beverage, and nor did it need one. This warm honey macaroon with white chocolate parfait, exclaimed Jo-Lyn, will "change your life". The textures were just dreamy - the macaroon was soft and tender and chewy and just a little crisp in all the right places, while the parfait was silky smooth. It was shockingly sweet.

Like a second dessert, the final cocktail was a Caraway Shrub - port steeped in berries and then refortified with vodka. It was to be sipped in turns with a meringue-like caraway foam. Lovely.

It became fairly clear as the night went on that a particular brand of vodka was sponsoring proceedings in some way. The deal was sealed with a take-home miniature bottle of said vodka and glossy flip-book of vodka-based cocktail recipes for each of us. This arrangement might go some way to explaining why we're requested to pay so little for so much.

Though my day could have finished with bad luck and a mighty bad mood on my part, Cafe Vue compensated several times over - I've not felt quite so jubilant and grateful (and yes, quite so under the influence) in some time. I made a point to thank the staff for accommodating my shameful lateness and left a sizable tip. Maybe they've a good motivation for offering all that vodka after all!

Address: 430 Little Collins St, Melbourne CBD
Ph: 9691 3899
Fully licensed
Price: Friday night cocktails $75 per person
Website: http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/cafe-vue.aspx