The Beach

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
The Beach is a stylish and spacious, two-story building fronting a long stretch of beach licked by the waves rolling in across the mouth of the Derwent. It consists of umbrella-ed alfresco tables, a long bar with a well-stocked top shelf, good coffee and a printed and specials whiteboard menu with enough flavours, dishes and promise to excite and make choosing difficult. Where better for a coffee, a sweet or savoury nibble, or a full-on breakfast and a lazy read of the weekend paper?

Choose from the lunch or dinner menus which run from a plate of potato wedges through fairly standard meats, salads and Asian-accented seafood numbers up to a seafood platter for two at $85. But their specials are a long list of wood-fired pizzas with a mixture of traditional and not-so-traditional flavours such as their signature twice-cooked duck and caramelised onion pizza – one the locals swear by. The more creative combos sometimes fall into the Mozart trap of too many notes and consistency is not always the kitchen’s strongest point. But, with a glass of chilled Sauv Blanc to hand, a table in the sun and the lull of the surf, such little problems don’t seem to matter so much – except perhaps on public holidays when there’s a 15% surcharge.

Graeme Phillips