Had pizza at the Duke tonight - in fact, a Wood Fired Garlic Prawn Pizza - $19.50.
It was average - not bad, not good. But - I will definitely return to the Duke. It has new-ish proprietors in the person of Paul Bonnitcha, an ex-Drysdale teacher. Paul was also working at The Beach, keeping it real, while he was at Drysdale.
He now has the Duke, and has some private school VET students running the restaurant on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
I like that generosity of spirit. I think it should be encouraged, so I will nag my workmates to lunch there soon.
Paul seems to have tidied the place up a bit. It feels cleaner and more welcoming. The service was definitely very good.
We had dips with drinks to start with - the usual: tsatsiki, pesto, and something else. Not particularly remarkable or tasty. I must make a mental note to leave dips from now on. It seems very rare to get one that is genuinely tasty these days. What is it with dips? Why should something so relatively simple to make be so boring?
I love avocado dip, but it too is badly abused by establishments just throwing a bit of sour cream into it and calling it guacamole.
Anyway - it feels like I'm being negative about the Duke. Frankly, I'm lukewarm about the flavours of the food I ate tonight but I really want the place to do well, so am saying, let's give it a go, please.
Monday, 21 May 2007
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9 comments:
Yes, it's good to support someone having a go, Rita.
I'm with you on dips. Last week my missus bought some Hommus with garlic and lemon. Now, it was the missus who picked it up, I just like unmessed-with Hommus.
I thought it was weird but the missus liked it okay.
Sir Grumpy.
How do you interpret the proprietor's use of cheap (free?) labour as "generosity of spirit" that must be encouraged?
Why should I support the "average" eateries Rita? I am your number one fan so only frequent the more refined establishments that score 7.5 plus on the Rita scale. Send me your thoughts; also is nine ok to pick you up for Mark IV tonight?
I support the proprietors decision to give some students some real experience in a real venue though :)
19.5 seems steep for a pizza - guess you were sharing a large one? Or props to you if you were eating a large one yourself. Still no kitchen, so off to the Maypole (with a booking) tonight. Going to have me one of those big rib-eye steaks and tummy's rumbling already.
Kitty - yep - you're right. I was thinking about the cost in bed last night (after I'd written the post). Remembered that my main at Peppermint Bay a month ago was $21 and was head & shoulders flavour-wise & enjoyment-wise above the Garlic Prawn Pizza, which had half a prawn on each segment. It was a medium pizza by the way, not large.
So - yes - it WAS steep. Naughty, naughty. We all know how cheap pizza is to produce. Hope you have a great steak at Maypole.
Anon 5.31 - you're so uncharitable. If you think about it, to have people there training, & instructing them, is way more trouble than the returns you get for the free/cheap labour. I stick by what I said. It is a generosity of spirit that not as many people as should have.
Sir G - there are some wierd dips on sale that I've seen recently & they all sound really yummy when you read the label, but I always get let down when I try them, and end up throwing them out.
Mick - go for it with taking me to MIV at 9.00! Now there's a fine illustration of 'generosity of spirit'!
Rita, the last time me and the missus were at the Duke was so long ago that the glass of white wine was from a Brown Bros cask!
Rememer those days...when a glass of wine came froma cask at the bar?
Very rarely could you get a bottle wine by the glass in the bar, although in the dining rooms it was the opposite (thank goodness).
It's not that long ago this was standard practice.
At least it was cheap! No fancy beers on tap either.
A nostalgic Sir Grumpy.
Would that have been the days it was called the Iron Duke, or the Duke of Wellington, Sir G?
I remember it being THE trendy place to go at one stage, many years ago.
And yes - it seems like ages ago now when your glasses of wine at a pub were from a cask. The thought that you might get a glass of wine from a bottle didn't seem to occur to anyone, did it? Mind you - the Brown Bros casks were the elite ones weren't they?
I remember serving the hallowed Ben Ean or Houghtons White Burgundy to every table at the Valley Lodge (in Lenah Valley) to every wanker wanting to impress his girlfriend for years!
Valley Lodge - that's a blast from the past - does it still exist. I must drive that way once a day and haven't ever noticed..
I think the Valley Lodge must have closed down as an operation. The signs are down, and it looks like it's just a private residence now.
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