Botanical
169 Domain Road, South Yarra Vic
Ph: 03 9820 7888

You know a place has made it when it is talked about with a single word or abbreviation and all the trendies and foodies know exactly what you are talking about.

The Grange in Adelaide (the five-star restaurant in the Hilton) or “ The Sebe “ or “ The Sebel” (the Sebel Town House Hotel) which sadly no longer exists in Sydney.

And through the 1970s and 1980s in Melbourne there was The Bot. Short for The Botanical in Domain Road, South Yarra.

It was still there in the Nineties but getting tired. The so-called In Crowd had moved on and it’s metal walls and lousy acoustics made it less appealing.

Earlier this year the owners of The Bot decided to do something about it. Did they ever! They gutted the place. The bar went plus the restaurant out the back and the bottle shop.

In nine weeks – and a rumoured million bucks later – they have transformed it. It is no longer The Bot. It is now simply Botanical.

What they have done is very clever, very stylish and user-friendly. The restaurant is now not only at the front it spills on to Domain Road with great, long wooden benches on the pavement. Perfect for a brunch and the Sunday papers.

There’s a huge country-style table in the bottle shop where you can also eat and read the papers.

There are several other airy areas and a cosy bar at the back called Bubbles.

I went there a few days after it opened and there were a few understandable teething problems. The main coffee machine had blown up and they were still only serving breakfasts and brunch.

But good ones. Juices like a melon, apple and grapefruit combo with a sprig of mint. Or tomato, carrot, celery, ginger and lemon.

I opted for a Bloody Mary. You can usually judge a serious brunch place by their Bloody Marys. This one was good with a sprig of celery but was indicatively too red in colour. Needed to be brown. Needed more Worcestershire sauce.

Then came their Big Botanical Breakfast.

Good use of a wood-fired oven to produce a $16 breakfast that contained spicy sausage, smoked bacon, baked beans, black pudding, roasted tomatoes, big fat black field mushrooms and some crunchy toasted sough dough.

It was aesthetically pleasing – served in a cast iron pan on a wooden platter.

Looked great but I needed a side plate to make the eating easier.

The Botanical has a great vibe. It will be successful. Weekends will be filled with trendy tracksuits and tennis gear. The bars should again attract the well-heeled equivalent of the old days.

But. One real downer. My brunch colleague (male) went to the men’s room at The Bot. He came back to report that another male left a cubicle and walked straight out without washing his hands.

He was a waiter. I left The Bot thinking of somebody else’s.

April 23, 2003