Bar Rochford

Contemporary$$

It’s been at least six months since I last listed things I love about Canberra, so here we go: the football streaker at Cockington Green. The Clem Cummings-designed concrete bus shelters. Old Parliament House, especially the mint condition Speaker’s Suite wing complete with Cedel hairspray in the loo. Adventures in schnapps at the Polish White Eagle Club. The Belconnen Owl. Recess Coffee. Under Bakery. Paranormal Wines.

The last three might just be my favourite cafe, bread shop and bottle-o in Australia. What’s absolutely certain is that Bar Rochford is my favourite bar. If you haven’t had the pleasure, it’s roughly in the centre of town on London Circuit, with a first-floor view towards City Hill and cold, quiet sunsets.

There’s a working fireplace and racing-green booths, and potato galettes topped with goat’s cheese and honeycomb. Records run from Townes Van Sandt to Marquee Moon to Austrian downtempo. The interior decorating job, with its modernist cat figurines, Grace Jones poster and HMAS Collins model submarine, may remind you of Geralds Bar in Melbourne, or one of the nicer vintage stores in Redfern.

Bar Rochford is widely loved by anyone into gamay, Gary Numan and cocktails, and I figured it would always be of the Canberra furniture, like the National Carillon and blokes in tight-fitting Rodd & Gunn chinos. (Fellas, just let the ankles out a bit.) The past year has been rough-going for business along London Circuit, however, largely due to the dust, jackhammering and roadblocks of light-rail construction. The view outside Rochford’s commanding arch window currently looks like the post-bunyip clean-up in Michael Salmon’s The Monster that Ate Canberra.

Anyway, I don’t want to tell you to book a candlelit table because you’d be doing owner Nick Smith and his staff (and me) a solid to help ensure Rochford makes it to the other side of this construction, slated to be completed in 2027, but who really knows. You should go because the cooking and drinks are as delicious as they’ve ever been.

Alisdair Brooke-Taylor has led the kitchen since March last year, returning to Australia after running The Moorcook Inn in West Yorkshire and cooking delightful things like smoked partridge with liver parfait and roast apples. The chef largely sticks to the same wine-bar comfort brief that Bar Rochford has delivered for the past 10 years: farm-championing produce and confident flavour combinations, such as lamb shoulder slow-roasted with rosemary and Geraldton wax, and finished on the grill with a lacquer of apple and lamb jus.

Vegetable-based dishes are a strong point, such as grilled king oyster mushroom skewers that double down on the umami with a sheen of prawn oil. I was a big fan of the red emperor in July, the fish cured with fresh yuzu zest before steaming, and perched on kipfler potatoes with a lush – tongue-twister ahead – vanilla and vermouth veloute. But if you only order one main for these final weeks of winter, make it the juicy ballotine of Sommerlad-breed chicken with truffles from nearby Terra Preta farm and a jus gras of requisite stickiness.

Venue manager Ryan Smith will be on hand to chat about any fun Beaujolais he’s unearthed for the occasion, and recommend a classic sharpener (there’s a page of martinis you will actually want to drink) or post-dessert cocktail (hop aboard “Pablo’s Cruise” with Armagnac, cherry and sweet vermouth). Bar Rochford is one of the all-too-rare examples of a venue treating wine, beer, cider, cocktails and spirits with equal regard.

And if you’re looking for dinner in Canberra and none of this sounds like your jam, consider Charcoal Restaurant or Mezzalira, or any of the dozens of other food and booze businesses on London Circuit. In an economy where restaurants are struggling in every city, town and country, the chaos of long-term construction is the last thing anyone needs.

The low-down

Atmosphere: Welcoming wine and cocktail bar as Canberran as Telecom Tower

Go-to dishes: Chicken ballotine with polenta and mushrooms ($62); king oyster mushroom skewers ($8 each); bluefin tuna with tomato and capsicum vinegar ($24); lamb shoulder with broccoli and pickled elderberries ($56)

Drinks: Fun! Plenty of emerging producers next to established local names, and a sharp focus on Chablis, Beaujolais and the Jura; well-balanced house cocktails and bracing classics

Cost: About $170 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

More:

  • Canberra
  • Accepts bookings
  • Gluten-free options
  • Good for groups
  • Late-night dining
  • Licensed
  • Open fire
  • Outdoor dining
  • Date night
  • Vegetarian-friendly
  • Contemporary
  • Separate bar
  • Reviews
  • Bar Rochford
  • Good for solo diners
  • Prix fixe
  • Vegan-friendly
  • Special occasion
  • Critics’ Pick
  • Bar
  • Wine bar
  • Bar snacks
  • Pokies-free
  • Good for a first date