Most of my long form writing is about the places I eat, and they get published to Forksake. Here are some of my favourites:

Carnation Canteen

Keep your elbows close to your body. Carnation Canteen proves you don’t need much space to create something magnificent. 

The twenty-seat Fitzroy eatery requires a keen eye to spot, camouflaging into the residential end of Gore Street. Looking inside, you wouldn’t be shocked to learn that the chef behind the restaurant is also former architect Audrey Shaw, alongside her husband Alexander Di Stefano. It’s clear that just as much attention and craft has been dedicated to the interior design as the menu. The pink marble bar counter-top, rustic tables, and stainless steel shelving strike a flawless balance between appearing meticulously selected yet effortlessly put together. Embracing its unconventional size and location, the restaurant feels elegant yet thoroughly lived in.  

Walking in, it feels like you’ve been invited to a fancy dinner party at a friend's house, in the best way possible. There’s something so endearing and homely about having to duel with neighbouring elbows just to use your cutlery, and playing solitaire with empty plates to make room for new dishes, that makes a meal with friends so much more memorable and downright fun. The size of the restaurant is not just a novelty, but a genuine part of the experience. 

The handwritten menu ties perfectly into the unique atmosphere. It’s charmingly messy, albeit slightly difficult to understand - but as anyone with a book of old family recipes can confirm: the messier the writing, the better the food. 

On the night of my visit, the weekly hyperseasonal menu offers a variety of mediterranean flavours, the highlights being: the sparklingly acidic spanakorizo (Greek rice and spinach), creamy buffalo ricotta and briny anchovies on toast, and the ​​caponet (Italian stuffed cabbage roll). The frequent menu rotations mean that each dish feels perfectly suited to the time of year, whether you seek coziness, refreshment, or something in between. Flip the menu to learn the local suppliers of Carnation’s plethora of fresh produce - a thoughtful addition that enriches the sense of community the restaurant fosters through its location and design.

Frankly, the fantastically delicious food is only the cherry on top for those willing to embrace the squeeze. You’ll be more than satisfied by the lively atmosphere, top-notch hospitality, and endless charm that Carnation Canteen has to offer.

Jim’s Greek Tavern

It’s been less than 24 hours since I left Jim’s Greek Tavern and I already want to go back. 

Stepping foot out of the restaurant and onto cold and windy Johnston Street on a Wednesday night was a truly sobering experience, like being torn away from your warm bed and hurled into a vast and frigid ocean. 

Inside, the first thing that hits you is the noise. There’s no such thing as inside voices. They would crush you with sheer volume. Speak up, or be drowned out. 

Jim’s has no menus - a paper menu and QR code for the table is traded out for banter with the waiter and blind faith in the kitchen. It’s borderline religious how fantastically this faith pays off. 

We’re seated for barely thirty seconds before the first dish is served: a trio of dips with an assortment of vegetables and a generous serving of warm bread. The plate is three-quarters decimated by the time our waiter, a charmingly boisterous man named George, returns to take our ‘order’. He rapid fires through our options for seafood and meats, including charred octopus, barramundi, lamb gyros, and chicken kebab. The mere thought of any one of these dishes is enough to turbo-charge my salivary glands, so sticking to the theme of ‘trust the kitchen’, we hand George the reins for our meal. 

As expected, he delivers with absolutely soaring colours. Our little table is soon crowded with calamari, saganaki, lamb gyros, lamb and chicken kebab, and greek salad. The BYO bottle of moscato is relegated to the floor beside our table (no corkage, by the way). Every bite of every dish drips with flavour and unparalleled heartiness. The meats are juicy and charred, topped with fresh onion that pierces through the fattiness with razor-sharp precision. The salad offers the perfect counterweight - a palette cleanser, where each mouthful of fresh and crisp vegetables primes you for the next carnivorous bite. 

Somehow, the phenomenal food isn’t even what I missed the most at the end of my night. George. Glorious George. Glorious George and his casual visits to our table to check in on our food, give us a recommendation, or remark on our friend’s lateness, all accompanied by a genuine grin and authentic kindness. Glorious George, who even an hour after we had finished eating, assured us that we were in no rush to leave, and could stay as long as they were open. There was something contagious about George’s energy too, that turned us all into Georges for a night and allowed us to talk loud and share a laugh with a neighbouring table of complete strangers. And from what I could see, every single staff member both in and out of the kitchen was a George. 

I will be back, that’s for certain. I just can't decide whether it’ll be more for the food, or for George.