Brisket, Bevvies and Blues, POD dinner event

POD Cafe is a little cafe set up inside a post industrial design shop in West Footscray.  They do breakfast and lunch and on occasion a special dinner event! I think there might be plans for 6 throughout the year? I'm very glad I spotted their sign up sheet in the cafe.

http://postindustrialdesign.com.au/Content/pod-cafe-west-footscray/

Here is the menu for the evening:

There's Fiona, one of the owners. I liked the industrial style aprons they had on.

There were quite a few large tables, and the bench seat (where we sat looking out onto the street)

First course - the oysters!  I'm not a big oyster fan but with the salsa they tasted ok, I'm sure someone who really liked oysters would have enjoyed them.  I was determined to try everything though :)

Nothing related to food - but really liked this dress a lady was wearing!  She looked amazing in it.

The blues for the night provided by Oscar Lalor.  I was a little iffy about the blues concept, not being a major blues fan, but I really liked what he was playing. It also wasn't obnoxiously loud so you could choose to focus on the music or enjoy the conversation around you.

The entree - lamb and okra pie.  The fruit complemented it well whilst having a little bit of spice.  The okra wasn't too over powering either.  I noticed a few people discussing what okra was (I didn't know). Also how pretty is the plate?!

This was the view from our seat.  My very nice light Allies Mornington Pinot Noir.  Our water jug even had quite a unique doily over it.

Here's Jess who is another owner of the cafe giving a bit of a spiel about the night.

Applause for Paul the meat guy.

There was also a lady from the Rowdy Sheila beer makers talk a little about the beers available for the evening and what they had planned for their beer lineup.  She was in the Hoppers Crossing area so was nice that they found a local.  I felt a bit guilty for not trying their beer but not being a beer fan was enjoying the pinot noir.

Next up a palette cleanser of Raspberry and Champagne granita.

Next up the main course. By this stage we were still pretty peckish but it hit the spot nicely!  Here are the sides of blacked eye bean braise, and pickled vegetables (slaw, beetroot, pickles and carrots). All very tasty.

The piece de resistance.  13 hour brisket done with salt and pepper with an amazing flavour, including some awesome tasting bark bits.  Sourdough Corn bread (tasted more soughdough than corn).  Fried tomatoes with a sweet and spicy dressing.

Here's my plate loaded up.  The bean braise in particular worked well with the bread.

In preparation for dessert I ordered a mint julep.  It packed quite a punch but tasted delicious.

Alison was a bit more artistic with lining her dessert up for a photo for me (but it's a little blurry sorry!! I blame the mint julip).  Dessert was a mango parfait, with roasted peach and macadamia tuille.  There was also something white under the parfait.  Not sure if it was a little bit of ice cream or something.  But it all tasted great so was glad had saved room for it (passed up on the extra offers of more meat, sides and bread). I was a little skeptical as I wouldn't describe myself as a big mango or peach fan but nothing was overpowering.

Here's my dessert with julep :)

Apparently Jess had guitar skills too!  So he teamed up with Oscar once dessert had been served.  They sounded great.

I look forward to future events at POD.  If I had to make a suggestion it would be to try to bring out the starter earlier as we were pretty hungry by the time the food started coming out.  But that's only a minor thing and overall we both enjoyed the evening.  The fact that it was on a Sunday night I think influenced a few people to leave at 10pm after dessert had been brought out. So didn't get to enjoy the music of the combined guitarists for too long.  I really liked that drinks were paid for separately and it was a smooth process to finalise payment of those at the end of the night.

I've now made myself hungry in updating this blog post and looking at all the photos again.