For a while there I thought the Ritz French Cafe didn't exist, but in 1928 it was located at 110 Lonsdale Street, the site of Melbourne's famous Fasoli's Restaurant and Wine Bar. In the early 1900s Fasoli's was the centre of the city's literary and artistic life, with regulars including writers, poets, art critics and its own Queen of Bohemia.
"The rendezvous of connoisseurs", according to its advertising, the Ritz offered 5-course lunches and 7-course dinners and was licensed to sell Australian wines (Seppelt's).
So will it be Phryne's apres-theatre French supper at the Ritz with Ruddigore's leading man, Gwilym Evans, or her dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Little Bourke Street with her lover, Lin Chung? Steak and mushrooms, or crab with ginger, salt and pepper squid and lemon chicken? Pavlova and apple pie, or almond soup? Or Mrs B's home-cooked dinner of "excellent bouillion", fricasee of veal and apple crumble with cream. Or the lamb chops and pommes duchesse enjoyed on another night in?
I'm tempted to mix it all together - salt and pepper squid, lamb chops with pommes duchesse, passionfruit pavlova. A pity that Phryne has yet to encounter the duck spring roll.
Prawn Cocktails
Crumbed Lamb Cutlets with Pommes de Terre Duchesse and Peas
Passionfruit Pavlova
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