The French technique-focused restaurant will introduce more “knife and fork food” to its spin-off wine bar.
Hatted Paddington restaurant Porcine will fully take reins at L’Avant Cave wine bar in Paddington from January, with P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants – with which it shares the building and courtyard bar – pulling out of the suburb at the end of the year.
“We’re calling last drinks on Oxford Street,” P&V co-owner Mike Bennie says. “This isn’t one of those doom-and-gloom stories. Our lease has come to an end after five years, and we want to refocus on the Newtown store.”
For the past five years, Porcine has served technique-driven French food above P&V. Bennie says the two businesses have had a great relationship as upstairs-downstairs tenants, and the decision earlier this year to entrust the food at P&V’s leafy courtyard bar to Porcine will enable a softer transition for regulars.
“We’re off the sofa and into the bedroom,” Porcine chef and co-owner Nicholas Hill joked in March when the collaboration between the businesses was announced. So with P&V moving out, what can be expected at one of Sydney’s best wine bars now that Porcine is flying solo?
Porcine co-owner Matt Fitzgerald says they will remove the large wall fridge after the last service under P&V’s watch, on December 31, and replace it with a banquette in time to reopen L’Avant Cave mid-January. And where P&V’s strength was the bottle shop, that will be dialled back under its new operator.
“We have the licence, so you’ll still be able to [buy takeaway wine] at L’Avant Cave,” Fitzgerald says. A holding bar for Porcine diners will be included in the space, and there will be a change in food pitch.
“There’ll be a little more knife and fork [food],” Fitzgerald says. “We’ll still keep the fun vibe.”
Porcine has been on the awards roll of late. Hill is in Paris this week to receive the Next Gen Discovery Award from La Liste, a well respected French-based global restaurant guide. In May, he won the high-pressure Australian round of Bocuse d’Or, often referred to as the Olympics of the cooking world.
Bennie says he’s proud of P&V’s five years on Oxford Street, with former head chefs of its wine bar moving to high-profile restaurants, not to mention overcoming the challenge of launching during COVID.
He’s looking forward to celebrating the bottle shop’s final month in Paddington. “It’s kind of the last chance to get the distinct P&V vibes at the venue before the changeover, the kind of unique personality we’ve brought.”
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