It’s German, ja. Actually, with the hyper-specificity now demanded by a food world that knows its Catalonia from its Cantabria and its Piedmont from its Puglia, Messer celebrates the vibrant food scene of Berlin, the world’s coolest capital. Berlin is a place where they have a swimming pool floating on the river and a court declare a nightclub produced works of cultural significance and therefore should be taxed at a lower rate. We like Berlin.
Ashley Davis likes Berlin, too. The owner/chef of the garlanded Copper Pot in Seddon has a German wife, an affinity with potatoes, and certainly knows his way around a spatula (as head chef at London’s Hélène Darroze he won the restaurant its second Michelin star. His CV is none too shabby).
Messer is German for knife, and the new and unique Berlin diner approach of this 10-month-old restaurant gives it an edge on Gertrude Street, which these days is experiencing an eating explosion of Spanish tapas, hot chicken, vegan tacos and Andrew McConnell.
It is, says Davis, more of a modern interpretation of a Berlin diner, which leaves the menu with fewer umlauts than you might expect and gives him wriggle room to throw in a few pan-European moves. Steamed pippies in a broth spiked with `nduja and sweet Riesling isn’t something that immediately invokes the land of Goethe but it’s smashable in anyone’s language, with fried curry leaves adding well-placed intrigue. And if you’re worried about the drinks list being weighted in a sweet Riesling direction, think more middle-European wines with a bit of heft that can stand up to big flavours, like an Austrian natural blaufränkisch or a similarly-ethosed The Wanderer shiraz from the Yarra Valley.
Carbs do feature prominently here but sometimes… not. Trout is hot smoked, mixed with crème fraiche and dill and sandwiched between fried shards of its own skin, like the snack you’d find at a Berlin S&M club. With salty pops of roe on top, it’s a trout three-way that comes two to a serve for $12. Fried school prawns upscale a snack found on the North Sea coastline with crisp lettuce cups, a savoury may, espelette pepper and paprika oil. A duck sausage, made for Davis by Meatsmith, subs in for pork in a currywurst covered in a thatch of fried potato sticks.
The potato dumplings are a classic bit of Germanic cooking. Like gnocchi only bigger and smoother and not Italian, they’re the perfect carb vehicle for a mushroom ragout and parmesan sauce. It’s not the kind of dish a mere mortal could consider eating alone. Our advice: split it as well as the stout-glazed roast pork belly wrapped in pancakes with red cabbage, with a friend.
The room is a nice place to bide your time. Bottle-lined shelves, cool retro photos of 1980s babes blithely unaware the Berlin Wall is about to come down. The lighting is set to date night. The staff know their stuff but keep the mood casual. It’s good. The Berliner Messer is a better Messer. We say ja.