Prince Wine Store to open a wine bar

The Prince Wine Store in South Melbourne is opening a wine bar next door and utilising a long-term friendship to help get the food offering just right. Store owners Philip Rich, Alex Wilcox and Michael McNamara have been lunching monthly for 20 years with James Broadway, co-owner of Fitzroy's Gertrude Street Enoteca. "We were talking about the wine bar and I suggested that we help with the food," Broadway says. By ''we'', Broadway means himself and his business partner, chef Brigitte Hafner, who will consult to Bellota, as the wine bar will be called. Stephanie Briton will be Bellota's chef. Briton has been cooking at Gertrude Street for the past four years and "was looking for a change, so this has worked out well", Broadway says. Bellota is aiming for an early May opening.

Hilary McNevin