Just Open: The Craft & Co., Collingwood

Deli counter and bottle shop? Tick. Cafe and microroastery? Tick. Retail space? Tick. Bakery, distillery and microbrewery? They're all ticked too at thisnew hub of local artisan food and wine, The Craft & Co. in Collingwood.

The Baggio family, which owns the Home Make It shops in Reservoir and Clayton, and who are behind the recently released book The Makers by Rita Erlich, have realised a long-held dream to open an outlet offering products and produce from Australian artisan producers, farmers, wine and spirit makers.

They've opened up a former menswear store, on the corner of Keele and Smith streets, utilising the natural light through huge windows and a skylight and finishing the room with white tiles and concrete flooring.

Head chef Dom Marzano has come over from Grossi Florentino Cellar Bar and is making the most of his new Italian wood-fired Peva oven, roasting chicken brined in whey and porchetta with fennel and chilli. There are pizzas, pastas, salads, sandwiches to go, a house blend of coffee beans roasted on-site and a pairing menu of three drinks matched with charcuterie or cheeses.

Upstairs is a retail outlet stocked with produce made around the country, along with cheese- and meat-curing rooms, and there are plans to make their own cheeses and more salumi.

Open Mon-Wed 7am-4pm; Thu and Sun 7am-10pm; Fri-Sat 7am-11pm.

390 Smith Street, Collingwood, 03 9417 4755, thecraftandco.com.au