Living and Loving Hobart:: Sidecar

By now you would have heard the accolades for Hobart’s youngest and finest restaurant, Garagistes. It is no mean feat to be ranked Tasmania's number 1 in the Gourmet Traveller’s 2013 Australian Restaurant Guide and 22^nd nationally when you are up against the likes of Gilmour’s Quay, Tetsuya, the unstoppable Neil Perry and Shannon Bennett’s Vue.

Sidecar's pickles and chips

Garagistes is solid, but have you tried their side serve Sidecar?

There may be some truth in the guide’s reference that Sidecar is the holding bar for the main game around the corner but the description does not do justice to the establishment’s integrity.

Lunch menu, understated and retro-style

Sidecar opened around Easter this year and since then has ventured from wine and dinner, to lunches three days a week. One of the Two Girls took herself, and her Friday boozy lunch friend, off to have the experience, first hand.

Even the meat cutting device is hot hot HOT

The aesthetic is efficient, modern and minimalist. Diners sit around the perimeter of the kitchen perched on stools of amarillo, charcoal and black. The layout's intimacy allows for easy engagement with the amiable and recently arrived chef, Shay, ex-Colorado via San Francisco; and impressive Katrina Birchmeier, co-owner and wine-controller, who are both at your service.

The hot dish of our day was swede and kale gratin

The architecture is not dissimilar to the award winning Garagistes complete with their beautiful handmade plates and elegant floating shelves. The toilet is so sexy, it was only a modicum of decorum that stopped one of the Two Girls from photographing it.

Thanks goes to Kirk Richardson for his stunning work.

Typically, we get stuck in the champagnes and bubbles section of the wine menu so this Girl will not pretend to give you the wine list run down except to say it is largely quality imports. We went for the mid-range rose that hinted sugar but did not cloy.

Bubbles the colour of cloudy ripe strawberries

The menu is contained to around half a dozen or so plates. We tried most. They were unique and make an excellent lunch or imaginably, an elegant accompaniment to a lovely glass of wine. The plates are served in the style of tapas and four dishes served two of us well. The Friday boozy-lunch friend went on to have an un-photographed dessert. Not unexpectedly, it was also described as 'Mmmm....GOOD!'