The Rose Upstairs

As far as restaurant openings go, the Rose Upstairs has been decidedly minimalist. No social media, no party, no balloons, no bells, no whistles. No signage, for that matter, which is boldly taking minimalism where minimalism has not gone before. There's a chalkboard perched on the back staircase leading to the freshly minted Upstairs, but that's what passes as a PR onslaught in these parts.

My theory? The owners are trying to not scare the locals, who made their displeasure known when the 152-year-old pub was last put on the market in 2012. Very capable they were, too, in sending the message that property developers would be unwise to get their grubby mitts on the joint. Hence, I suspect, the softly-softly approach. A wine bar and restaurant might be the very thing to provoke them into outright rioting.

Notice is hereby served that the Rose is still decidedly Old Fitzroy, a comfy old corner pub with its footy posters, its beer trough and its no-fuss menu of parmas and mixed grills eaten amid the comfortable certainties of vinyl and timber veneer. The front bar still roars on game days with AFL fans offering sage advice to opposing teams. There's nothing much to indicate the first floor has been turned into a spacious, alabaster, Old World wine bar with bentwood seats, marble fireplaces and ceiling roses, its studied elegance marred only by a flat-screen TV and its slideshow of famous artworks. Van Gogh … Seurat … Cezanne. It's like a failed idea from a display home, and thus Not Very Fitzroy.

Otherwise the new custodians are a sympathetic couple with their own Central Victorian winery - Quinns - that exerts a subtle influence over a booze list that comes as a complete surprise to anyone who's known the Rose only by its beerlines. The sommelier is the disarmingly young Marcus Radney, who comes via Vue de Monde. It's his list, backed by the owners' private cellar: sophisticated, with a neat selection by the glass, helped along by one of those newfangled Enomatic systems.

The chef, Sam Pinzone, also arrives waving credentials from the big boys, in his case Rockpool and Jacques Reymond. He's quarantined from the parma brigade in his own kitchen, with his own Euro-slanted menu that makes a big thing of sharing, including a two-kilo braised lamb shoulder and all the way up a kilo of Darling Downs wagyu scotch, with sides, for a tidy $195.

Not one for the commitment-phobic, certainly, but he knows how to handle some other good produce. Excellent angasi oysters from Mount Martha ($6 each - eek!), their brine giving a good salty undertow to the sweet sprightliness of champagne vinaigrette. A little tart - more of a tortilla-esque round of shortcrust than a tart, truth be told - covered in a smear of jammy shallots and Delice, a triple-cream cheese with a funky farmyard backnote.

I doubt the downstairs menu has ever seen the use of nasturtium leaves, although they would really have brought pizzazz to the $3 soups that sustained me through the university years. The Upstairs kitchen likes its leaves and flowers, although it doesn't go too silly-smeary-rubbly modernist with its retinue of solid combinations - pork with glazed chestnuts and parsnip has its rugged logic smartened up with urgent clusters of shimeji mushrooms and the acidic slap of green apple. I'd rethink putting pork belly and jowl on the same plate - not only is it an angiogram waiting to happen, it's too same-same - but this is a kitchen with a masculine swagger when it comes to meat. A bold hunk of venison, rare but well-rested - it's a bit like cutting into a baby's bottom - nestles in a forager-chic landscape of baby leeks and raw blueberries, nasturtium leaves and wilted mustard greens. The super-gloss sauce coating the meat is too bitter with cocoa; dessert, by contrast, is a properly delicate panna cotta perfumed with saffron syrup.

For a pub that prides itself on being grounded, Upstairs represents a bold leap. It will be interesting to watch as news of its existence trickles out. Those suspicious Fitzroy locals ought to be pleased the Rose will always be the Rose. But Upstairs certainly smells sweeter.

THE LOWDOWN
The best bit New life for an old stager
The worst bit The TV art slideshow
Go-to dish Venison, leek, blueberries, cocoa, $39

Twitter: @LarissaDubecki

How we score
Of 20 points, 10 are awarded for food, five for service, three for ambience, two for wow factor.
12 Reasonable 13 Solid and satisfactory 14 Good 15 Very good 16 Seriously good 17 Great 18 Excellent 19 Outstanding 20 The best of the best

Restaurants are reviewed again for The Age Good Food Guide and scores may vary.