Contemporary
WHEN Iain Munro owned Seddon's Le Chien, David Danks would pop in for coffee and — both being Scotsmen — they'd often say hello. A bit later, when Munro bought and built Cornershop in Yarraville, Danks — of Birdman Eating fame — came to "help out" and is now head chef, with an offer to be part owner. He's also part of Munro's latest project, Wee Jeanie.
Open for nearly two months, Jeanie is wee by name (from the verse of a Scottish folk song); wee by nature, with only seven tables, eight window stools and a cool Perspex communal table out the back where you can see and feel the rattle of trains rumbling past; and wee by menu, a snippet of card that lists about 10 items and a few more on the blackboard — anything too grand for Jeanie's wee kitchen is prepped at the Cornershop.
It's a cute space in a former record shop that was "falling down", as Munro puts it. A structural steel wall was inserted (Munro says the shop still has a slight lean if you look from across the street — it does, too) and a new concrete floor was laid.
Flooded with natural light, the minimalist fitout is fresh and crisp: white tiles, exposed brick, spunky custom-built timber furnishings and a forest-green Slayer coffee machine.
If you're a cheese-on-toast connoisseur, you'll be smitten with Wee Jeanie's Welsh rarebit. Danks combines bechamel, sharp English-style cheddar, a good whack of Dijon mustard, Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce (it has to be L&P, Munro says) and Guinness, which is then thickly spread on sourdough bread, melted under the grill and sprinkled with a dusting of cayenne pepper. Yummo.
Other offerings on the short but well-priced list include house-baked rosemary bread, a spongy, focaccia-style dough with holes poked in the top — good salt, extra-virgin olive oil and rosemary are pushed inside the holes so each bite of the warmed bread is laced with flavour.
In a ceramic dish, terrific baked eggs are soft and runny with eggplant kasundi (chorizo, too, if you'd like) topped with creamy, soft feta. There's a duck confit terrine with onion jam; a BLT; soups; and flavour-packed, healthy salads, such as lentil, fennel and radicchio, or French bean and pumpkin. Rice pudding is rich with strawberries poached in orange juice, spiced with sumac and with rosewater and pistachio. Tasty quiches — mushroom and feta, or bacon and broccoli — have buttery pastry casing and crumbly crusts.
Wee Jeanie may be small but it's a professional set-up with skilfully made food, good coffee (organic, Fairtrade, Supreme) and service that's friendly but not in your face. It bodes especially well for Munro's next venture — in Williamstown's former Lever and Kowalyk — due to open about July. It seems the Scots are making their mark in the west.
Where 50 Anderson Street, Yarraville, 9687 7187
Prices Breakfasts and lunches, $8-$12; cakes and sweets, $4-$4.50
Cash only
Unlicensed
Open Mon-Sat,
7.30am-4.30pm
Cuisine Cafe
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