pdiv>When the crew behind the Classroom, Lucky Chan’s and Cocktail Gastronomy turn their attention from cocktails to beer, it’s pretty much a done deal: you know it’s going to be good. As with their other venues, there’s a story and a concept at play. With Dutch Trading Company, it’s riffing on partner Sasha Bennett’s Dutch heritage and the Dutch East India Company (the 17th and 18th century corporation that introduced the tastes of the new world to Europe).
Mention Dutch beer and many people will instantly think Heineken. Thankfully DTC have widened their sights beyond the obvious, tapping into neighbouring Belgian beer culture. They have a tap dedicated to lambic (wild yeast beer) and within months of opening they hosted the Cantillon Brewery’s Zwanze Day for Australia (just one of 56 venues globally to tap a one-off beer from a world famous brewery). When it’s business as usual, the 18 taps are teeming with good stuff from home and abroad, and growler refills are a go.
On the food front, the Dutch angle brings us the likes of frites and beef cheek bitterballen (crumbed, fried savoury balls). It’s simple yet effective beer food. Elements of Dutch Trading Co are a little rough around the edges – greasy laminated menus, plastic furniture, décor that doesn’t quite make sense – but this is a work in progress, and for those of us who have beer blinkers, they’re just footnotes. It’s all about the beer, really.