june news
We had our first produce dinner during April & was a great success! We were able to source some organic suckling pig which was featured, & finished with an amazing cheese board we served on a recycled ironbark sleeper with dry ice & some gorgeous french & italian cheeses! I’ve uploaded some pictures on our website if you want to take a look at the amazing food! We are working on the next one, & have slated 23rd June! We have some gorgeous grass fed sirloin aging in our cool room, which will probably feature. It will be just over 70 days aged! We are hoping to get our hands on some truffles to combine into the feast, but if we can’t source them, they may have to wait for another dinner. It will be a 6-8 course dinner again with matched wines. It will be limited to 18 guests again at approx. $100/head. On the note of dinners, Darren & I have also been talking about trialling dinner again...... We have discussed a Bastille day dinner & a mushroom based dinner as July is month of the mushroom (mushroom mania), & trialling dinner on a Friday night over 4 weeks to experiment a few things, & will be open to more people than just the 18!
Fresh produce is all over the place at the moment. Bananas as most of probably have heard are ridiculously priced. We have been very lucky up until the last few weeks, in that we have been able to source reasonably priced banana’s for our smoothies & banana bread. Given that they have hit prices round the $130-$180/box mark, unfortunately we are going to have to increase the price of banana bread. Berries & tomatoes are very expensive too & are quite poor quality, hence we are steering clear of berries at the moment too. Hopefully things will balance out over the next month so that we don’t have to make too many changes. But.... there will be some changes coming, & we are really excited about them, already we have changed the spinach hash & gone back to a home made hash brown which is amazing!
The coffee we have been getting has currently been better than ever! The darkhorse blend from Mecca we serve everyday has been awesome, & personally I am preferring it over even the single estate coffee’s Mecca has been sending us. I think I speak for all of us in saying that we feel very lucky to be able to bring you such a high grade coffee! Talk to the boys about what’s better on the day. If you enjoy good wine & feel like a bit of a change in your caffeine regime, try what we call a “Tanvir” it is basically a piccolo long black, as it cools, it opens up like a great red wine & you can taste the flavours that the coffee inherits from it’s surrounds just like a fine wine! Sometimes citrus, berry or earthy notes, I can’t get enough of it!
The sourdough baking continues... We are now using our own sourdough fruit loaf & soy & linseed. Testing continues with different varietals, & we are still working on baking all our bread!
For those that saw the last news, I am trying to get myself back into shape. I donated a prize for vision’s weight loss challenge that finished running at the end of April, & this kick started what feels like a selfish indulgence to try & drop some weight & maybe even compete in a triathlon or half ironman again. I spent two sessions a week at Vision & through the eating plan & exercise I dropped a kilo a week for the nine weeks of the Vision challenge & hopefully can stay on track to drop a few more!
Hope to see you all soon, & stay tuned for updates (twitter @alleybreak or facebook)!
Regards, Nick
april news
Back to the Future.........
We have some awesome food coming over the “back to the future” weekend. (26th & 27th March) Some old favourites, like the six foot, chicken slab & a new take on the lamb wrap, some of our current trends, & some very exciting dishes on the horizon of our future! I wouldn’t even know where to start with the new items, our inspired cheese burger with sourdough brioche bun, the macaroni & cheese is just divine, pork & chorizo? what else can I say... a marriage made in pig heaven or maybe just mine. We even have a contender to replace the chicken salad, a beautiful combination of flavours brought together by the orange cinnamon emulsion, it has that same wow factor that had us all going crazy over the lemon lime dressing! Feedback from the weekend will help guide our menu over the coming months & we are all really excited by the new dishes, I don’t know whether I could even pick a favourite! The produce we are getting our hands on not only for the weekend but currently is awesome & we are all very excited by it!
Speaking of produce, we have been getting in some organic suckling pigs & beautiful organic squash & pumpkins from one of our suppliers. Maybe even coming into the winter months there’s a good chance of getting our hands on some truffles! All of this great produce combined with the inspiration for the back to the future weekend & we are considering running produce/ underground dinners once a month depending on interest. Possibly even starting in a few weeks. We’re throwing around the idea of a 6-8 course dinner featuring suckling pig as part of the meal & finishing with an awesome cheese board. If you are interested we will take your name & number & let you know once we’ve decided on a date!
I have to apologise for being out & about a little more recently, & also thank the staff for holding the fort whilst I have been indisposed. Truth is I am trying to get myself back into shape! Or a better shape.... I was asked to donate a prize for vision’s weight loss challenge they are running, & this has kick started what feels like my selfish indulgence to try & drop some weight & maybe even compete in a triathlon again. I’ve been riding with Gav, Denis & co. regularly, & race acrossthe park when I get time to fit in a boxing class with Les. Considering I’ve never been much of a fan of gyms, I am spending a few hours a week down at vision & is pretty amazing. If you need a kick start like I did I’d definitely head down & see them! Apart from being a little tired, I am feeling great & thinking clearer, which will hopefully mean that I can be even more productive & inspirational! (I know this is wishful thinking)
Hope you all enjoy!
Regards, Nick
P.S. Ellen has raised in excess of $5000 to shave her hair for shave for a cure. Well done! & Pete would like a mention it’s his 21st b’day soon happy b’day! & also to Emily who has turned 18!!
