Heronswood Cafe

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
If you like your food ecologically friendly, and can’t resist something a little bit special, then this place is for you. Heronswood Cafe is located in a historic bluestone house that was built in 1871 with views over Port Phillip Bay. It has brilliant seasonally changing gardens and is home to the Diggers Garden Club (Australia’s biggest garden club) and Digger’s Seeds, which include heirloom vegetables selected over hundreds of years. Tucked away in all of this splendour is a small, quaint, thatched roof cafe with lots of timber, terracotta-tiled floors, rammed earth walls, and a kitchen garden from which much is taken to be used for lunch.

The menu changes daily, but the format’s pretty stable. Take your pick of first courses, or make a meal of a few of them – we liked the scallops on cauliflower puree, and the onion, olive and goat’s cheese tart. Otherwise choose a main course with extras. The $28 cost includes meat (perhaps lamb rump), chicken or fish, along with two side dishes from the day’s choices and bread. The salads are great: try a mixed tomato salad with olives, or an estate-grown roasted beetroot salad (still warm) with pomegranate dressing. The food is fresh and lively and goes well with the selection of local beers, wines and cheeses. Bookings are essential, but if there’s no space there’s always the possibility of a packed picnic basket to enjoy in the gardens. Or you call in for coffee and cake before or after the lunchtime rush. There’s an additional charge to explore the extensive gardens, but none to go into the Drop Slab cottage to buy plants from the nursery if you’ve got the garden space for tigerellas or Buddha’s hand.

Rita Erlich