Rockwell and Sons

Rockwell and Sons
288 Smith St
Collingwood, VIC 3066
Ph: (03) 8415-0700
Website


We caught up with the lovely Jess for a relaxed lunch at Rockwell and Sons a couple of weeks ago. I'd been meaning to visit for ages and try their take on Americana - fried chicken and biscuits and burgers, oh my! - but wanted to wait until the weather cooled down a bit. Apparently they don't have air conditioning, and there's no way I'd be able to inhale fried chicken in the hot weather!

It was a lunchtime, so no alcohol for us - just coffees and some non-alcoholic sodas.

Clockwise from top left: Short black - $2.50 House made lemonade - $5.00 Cappuccino - $3.50 Strawberry and Cardamom Soda - $5.00

Maine-Style Tiger Prawn Roll - w/ Kewpie, Capers, Pickled Celery - $12

Jess enjoyed her tiger-prawn roll, and it looked great! Y'all know I'm a big lover of lobster rolls, but I'd really wanna try the prawn roll next time.

Double Patty Smash Burger - w/ Kraft, Special Sauce on a seeded bun - $10

Unsurprisingly, Sandra got the famous Double Patty Smash Burger. And yup, like everyone says, it does taste like a Big Mac but BETTER. No lettuce, tomato, or other unnecessary vegetables here - it's just pure burger. Two patties, Kraft cheese, sauce, pickles and a lightly toasted, slightly sweet, bun. Burger heaven!

French fries, malt vinegar aioli - $6.00

Fries with the skin on make me happy.

I'd already scoped out the menu beforehand, and totally wanted the biscuits and sawmill gravy (which I think is only available at breakfast/lunch). It does come with poached eggs though, which I suspected might be gloopy overkill. So I took Jess' advice and menu-hacked, getting fried chicken instead of poached eggs.

Best. Decision. Ever.

Buttermilk biscuits with Sawmill gravy - $16 Extra fried chicken - $9

I enjoyed this so very, very much! It was a pretty heavy dish, but each individual element was really good, and they worked so well together.

Fried chicken!

The fried chicken was really juicy and (surprisingly) boneless. I loved the different herbs and spices they used in the coating, and there were some crisp parts and some soggy parts.  Dee-licious.

Biscuit from the side

Sawmill gravy, as far as I can tell, is just a white sauce (or roux) made with lard or sausage grease instead of butter, and crumbled up pieces of sausage mixed through. (I know my description doesn't make it sound appealing, but it is really very tasty!)

My favourite part of the whole dish, however, was definitely the biscuit. Like a savoury scone, it was wonderfully fluffy on the inside, with a fantastic crust on the outside. (Look at all the layers in the picture above - beautiful!)

Check out the fluffy innards too... it's amazing how something so full of butter (and possibly shortening) can taste so light! If they sold the biscuits separately, I'd totally eat them spread with butter and jam. I must try recreating this breakfast at home.

Fluffy biscuit innards...

And that was our visit to Rockwell! I really like the place... good food, good prices ($10 for the patty smash burger is pretty sweet!) and a chillaxed atmosphere. Next time, I want to tackle their Wednesday-night fried chicken special!