Cumulus Inc

As much as I complain about the cold and the rain and the effect it has on Suede, Melbourne comes alive when the winds are howling and it’s no longer pleasant to drink at Rooftop.

The first cold, windy, rainy weekend in Melbourne, as if by some kind of innate autopilot, I ended up tucked up at the bar at Cumulus Inc.

This is undoubtably one of the best places in Melbourne.

Not only can you eat at the bar, but you can also eat at a Marble Bar overlooking the kitchen and watch exactly what is happening to your food.

All the oysters are shucked to order, all seven different varieties of them and the waitstaff just as knowledgeable as the chefs on their characteristics.

In my opinion it is incredible value for money. You can easily get away with breakfast, coffee and juice for under $25, which you can end up paying much more for watery poached eggs with undercooked bacon in the suburbs.

Here the Turkish Baked Eggs with Dukkah and Labne have got to be my favourite, but pretty much anything with the slabs of Farmhouse bacon will be amazing. The egg poached at 65 degrees for 65 minutes, served with Sorrell and Smoked Salmon is equally to die for, and I have it on good authority that the Sardines and the Pain D’epices do not dissapoint.

Breakfast is busy and only served till 11.30am, be prepared to wait for a table and wait a little while for your breakfast, but there is great coffee, organic orange juice and complimentary madelines filled with lemon curd if they feel like you have been waiting too long. The wait is really superfluous if you have great company and conversation to amuse yourself with.

Like clockwork the kitchen switches to a la carte mode and a new menu presents an array of Charcuterie, Oysters, thoughtful mains and even whole Lamb Shoulders to Share.

We weren’t necessarily hungry at this point, breakfast had taken care of that, but we weren’t quite ready to leave either. Grand plans of movies and galleries and museums were stumped by the never ending supply of entertainment in the kitchen, great strong coffee and the temptations offered by a new menu.

We had several teas and we were ready to start again.

We shared some Oysters, Clair de Lune to begin, as per the company.

We then went for the Kinkawooka Mussels with Jamon, Parsley and Saffron Bourride, which for $17 is ridiculously good value for two people.

Everything comes with Cumulus’s housebaked Sourdough and Multigrain, perfect for sopping up the amazing saffron goodness from the mussels.

By this stage we had started drinking Wine – Sutton Grange Rose, a beautiful dry Syrah Viogner from Victoria. Going outside now seemed incredibly pointless.

Especially when we recruited another partner in crime, who was thankfully ‘starving’.

Next up Shellfish Bisque with Crab Toast and Harissa Oil, another serving of my now-favourite-autumn dish Mussels and a generous heap of Spiced Cauliflower with Goats Curd.

Then the decision that getting a bottle of wine was probably a better idea than glasses.

Sometime during all this day became very late afternoon, Melbourne dimmed the lights and the rain started to fall outside. We decided that it would be a fantastic idea to get a bottle of champagne and try all the Batemans Bay Oyster varieties that we had not yet sampled.

Oh and the cheese is probably good too, so we’ll have a plate of that.

The beauty of Cumulus is its simplicity, with a focus on doing simple things well. The menu never tries to hard or confuses, it makes beautiful consistent delicious food that has never disappointed.

The staff were incredibly courteous considering we sat there for well over nine hours and drank quite a lot of booze. The meals were all amazing, the Oysters absolutely mind blowingly beautiful and we left very full and content, saying highly intelligent things like ‘best day ever’.

And it really was.

Cumulus Inc.
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
www.cumulusinc.com.au
+61 3 9650 1445