Cocktails

Vaporetto, Hawthorn

3/12/2016 09:38:00 PM

Vaporetto

Vaporetto Venetian Bar & Eatery
Rear 681 Glenferrie Road
Hawthorn, VIC 3122
Ph: (03) 9078-5492
Vaporetto Bar & Eatery Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato 

I love Venice. I've visited twice in my life, back when I was a student and was travelling through Europe. Both trips were in the height of summer - I stayed in a basic campsite, and spent my days sweating through the gorgeous streets, elbow to elbow with throngs of tourists, as far removed from the romantic idea of Venice from films and books as you could get - and still, I loved it. I found the city just breathtaking in its beauty! (I've put a few photos from my second trip at the bottom of this post).

Vaporetto Venetian Bar and Eatery

Vaporetto brings an idealised version of Venice right to Hawthorn, and I could not have been more keen to try it. This stylish bar and eatery is located at the back of that arcade on Glenferrie road that houses the Lido Cinema and Yo-Chi (I may as well just move in), and is brought to you by the team from nearby cafe Crabapple Kitchen. Just look for that beautiful shopfront, which I believe they imported from Venice.

Side note: I really like Crabapple Kitchen too! I've been a couple of times - I've never blogged it as they were both quick visits - but I can vouch that the service is always friendly even during hectic peak times, and I can highly recommend the buttermilk pancakes and the shoestring fries with aioli. (Yes, I ate those both in the same meal).

But, back to Vaporetto. We visited last Friday night with some girlfriends - we had planned to see the Friday night jazz show at the Lido, and I thought this was the perfect excuse to visit Vaporetto! It is, technically, a bar that also serves cicchetti (i.e. snacks), but we made a pretty filling dinner for four by ordering across the cicchetti menu.

Vaporetto

The drinks list is impressive - classic and original cocktails, a wide range of spirits, and wines from Australia and the Veneto. I, of course, couldn't resist a bellini, but all of the cocktails we tried were excellent.

Bellinis - Crushed white peaches, topped up with Prosecco - $16
White Peach Bellarita - Sauza Hornitos tequila, Limoncello, crushed white peaches and lemon - $18

Veneziano 'Vaperol Spritz' - Aperol, Prosecco, mandarino liqueur, soda, olives and orange - $16

While we were enjoying our cocktails, I was terribly obnoxious and dropped the fact: "Oh hey guys, you know I've had bellinis at the original Harry's Bar in Venice?" (God, shut up Sarah!) Sandra may have rolled her eyes at me, but y'all can feel free to check out my post about my visit to Harry's Bar in 2006. My friend and travel-buddy Clarice and I eschewed a gondola ride in favour of bellinis, and it was definitely the right choice!

So, as I said, we made a pretty filling dinner by ordering across the cicchetti menu. Looking back, I see we ordered everything on the list apart from olives, oysters, cheese and dessert. (Great job, girls!)

'Sarde in Saor' - sweet & sour Port Lincoln sardines, fennel, pine nuts & currants, bruschetta - $10

These sweet and sour sardines were very good. The combination of crunchy grilled bread and fresh sardines, topped with a delicious mix of softly cooked fennel, currants and pine nuts was incredibly moreish. (I'm a big fan of the combo of pine nuts and dried fruit, which reminds me that I should make Nigella's pappardelle with courgettes, sultanas and pine nuts again).

Arancini (3) of Spanner crab, saffron, cinnamon, squid ink aioli, wild dill pollen - $14.50

The spanner crab arancini were crunchy little balls of deliciousness, and I loved the contrast of malevolently black squid ink aioli against the sunny yellow saffron risotto.

Burratina, crushed peas, Heirloom tomato, young zucchini, Treviso, buckwheat - $16.50

The burratina dish was a welcome touch of freshness to our meat-and-carb heavy meal. A baby burrata sat atop a pile of roughly crushed, super sweet and fresh peas, with heirloom tomatoes and sliced baby zucchini. Pretty and tasty!

'Pierino' - Toasted sandwich from 'Harry's Bar' of prosciutto, Emmental, cayenne & mustard - $10

These pierino, toasted sandwiches with prosciutto and Emmental, were a big hit at our table - crunchy, cheesy, carby goodness. Perfect drinking food!

I'm not quite sure how, but we ended up ordering four plates of salami for our table of four. There were two plates of truffle sopressa, and two of salami Veneto. Both were great, soft and salty and delicious. I'm not generally a huge fan of truffle, but I loved the sopressa, with its mild truffle aroma. I also really liked the char-grilled rosemary and olive oil bread.

Marchetti's truffle Sopressa, 50gm - $10

Salami Veneto, 50gm - $8.50

I really, really, wanted the tiramisu, but we had to get to our show! Next time, next time. More cocktails, and dessert.

If I haven't already been too obvious about it, I loved Vaporetto, and can't wait to visit again, whether it be for a quick drink, a proper dinner, or a sneaky late-night tiramisu. I hear that they're adding a proper 'Eatery' to the bar, set to open in April... very exciting!


***

As promised, here's some more Venice-related goodness for you... a couple of pictures from my trip there ten (!) years ago! For more detail, see my blogposts: VeniceHarry's Bar; and Gelato! (Also please check out the book "Enchanted Venice", written by my friend and fellow Venice-lover, Lisa Rushford.)

View from a Vaporetto

Piazza San Marco

Bar Royal

Bellini at Harry's Bar - €12 

You Might Also Like

6 comments

  1. I love that shopfront!! And I don't see anything wrong with your salume ratios at all :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Woop woop, all of the cured meat! :)

      Delete
  2. It's always hard not to feel like your humble bragging when you talk about travel exploits - I didn't even know about bellinis when I travelled to Venice. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe I can't remember if I was aware of bellinis when I went to Venice the first time, but on my second trip with my foodie friend Clarice, she assured me they were a big deal! Now I know :)

      Delete
  3. What a wonderful place! The food looks great! I like that Pierino!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Pierino was soooo good! So good with a cocktail or a beer! ;)

      Delete

CONTACT ME

My email address is sarahcooks [at] hotmail [dot] com.