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Canberra Today 12°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Dining / No ordinary Joe’s, this bar

Polenta chips with sea salt and rosemary, served stacked on a slate plate with creamy gorgonzola sauce. Photo by Andrew Finch
Polenta chips with sea salt and rosemary, served stacked on a slate plate with creamy gorgonzola sauce. Photo by Andrew Finch
THERE’S something special about Joe’s Bar. Very special.

The fitout is unique. For example, check out the concrete curtain, light fitting made of Sambuca bottles (local designer), colourful glassware and rock-salt candle holders.

The relaxing atmosphere is conducive to good conversation at a normal volume (you don’t have to screech at the top of your lungs over loud doof-doof music to be heard) and the food is bloody good.

Chef Francesco Balestrieri, originally from Rome, works with his team behind a 10-metre, open-concept bar with a granite top that has a leather finish and an awesome texture.

Flavours are primarily Italian, in honour of the Bisa family’s heritage and the place named after owners Dion and Dan’s father.

Joe’s is at the East Hotel. I’m obsessed by the polenta chips with sea salt and rosemary, served stacked on a slate plate with creamy gorgonzola sauce. When I say obsessed, I mean it. So, too, are others – the first time I visited they had run out, having prepared 45 serves the night before. The kitchen was playing catch up since the chips require special prep time.

The menu is designed around sharing and all food is made in-house and cooked with an Italian heart.

Antipasti plates ($16 to $24) are pretty on the plate. But it’s the small delicacy dishes I’m most passionate about, such as the mouth-watering grappa and basil-cured Tasmanian ocean trout with watercress and goat’s whipped cheese, served with tiny edible flowers ($14). It’s exquisite.

The pasture-fed Cape Grim beef meatballs are the best I’ve had in yonks. They’re bathed in vine-ripened tomato sauce. Joe’s meatballs aren’t greasy and they don’t leave a terrible after-taste with your stomach wondering “why, why, why” you ordered them. The slow-cooked sauce is packed with flavour ($22).

For a treat, top off with mini-cannoli filled with whisky-spiced ricotta and candied pistachio ($14) or the vanilla-cream gelato sandwiched between crunchy Sicilian pistachio cookies ($8). Delizioso.

Wine lovers will find the extensive list a fascinating read and wonder to explore. Local options feature, but the concentration is on Italian varieties. Everything can be poured by the glass because Joe’s has invested in a state-of-the-art wine preservation system.

I’ve been to Joe’s twice now. The service is fantastic and the staff highly knowledgeable. The first visit had its shaky moments – for example, one wine was out of stock and another not chilled enough to be served. But enough of that. Joe’s is definitely an inner-south destination.

While at the East Hotel, also pop by the newly opened Muse – part café, part wine bar and part bookstore (with thousands of titles). It’s on my list.

East Hotel, 69 Canberra Avenue, Kingston. Kitchen open 3pm-10pm. Call 6178 0050.

 

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Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson

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