Editor's morsels

New grocer and cafe in Phillip

Wheat and Oats is a new grocer and cafe that's just opened in Phillip this week. It's the brainchild of Lachhu Thapa and Ben Richardson, who are also the young owners of the Hungry Buddha up the road in Curtin.

Thapa said they decided to open Wheat and Oats after spending Saturday mornings breakfasting and talking business. "We thought, 'We've still got something in us, we can do a lot better than this.' That prompted us to look for an avenue and when this place came up - because of what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it - the space was perfect."

In a rather awesome twist, Thapa and Richardson won a competition in which the prize was an all expenses paid holiday in Japan. So they went away to Japan to think about their new project, and then spent time doing intensive research in the cafe grocers of Melbourne.

The cafe in Colbee Court in Phillip has been open since Monday, serving up coffees and baked goods from Sweet Bones and Bread Nerds. The ceiling features 40 wooden pallets, there's a courtyard out the back and in the shop itself there's a separate section for the grocer's which will include "things we can't buy in IGA or Coles - biodynamic felafel mix, organic chocolates, organic olive oil". Everything will be local where possible.

Thapa says it's very early days and they're still sorting everything out. "We're revisiting our menu every week," he says. Eventually there will be hearty meals and lunches with the occasional Nepalese special. "I think it's one of the most amazing projects for me," he says.

Wheat and Oats. 22-24 Colbee Court, Phillip. wheatandoats.com.au. Do you have a cafe or restaurant in the works? Let us know on food.wine@canberratimes.com.au.

Customised pizzas at Braddon

There's eateries where you can design your own sandwich, burrito, ice cream combination or noodles, and now we can add pizza to the list. Newly opened 10" Custom Pizzeria at The Hamlet in Braddon lets customers get up close and personal with their takeaway pizza.

After choosing your base, your move along the counter and select from meats including roast peking duck, cayenne spiced chicken breasts, cumin infused roast beef, and prosciutto, six types of cheese, 15 vegetables, plus a special "boost" section with ingredients like chickpeas, broccoli, kale and quinoa.

The two woodfired ovens were commissioned especially for the store and are heated at 400 C, which cooks the pizzas in two minutes flat.

Owners Joe Pelle and Sam Tinelli, who have worked in Canberra's food industry for 20 years, meticulously trained up their staff to produce pizza to their own standard, and insist that the pizza is thrown out and started again if it's not quite there.

They reckon the concept will be popular with diners.

"In our experiences over the years people have always been keen to take things off a pizza, add things to it and semi-customize it. And people have always wanted to come up to the counter and watch pizzas being made," said Pelle.

"So we thought let's combine those two into a fun environment, where people create the pizza together with our pizza chefs."

Pelle and Tinelli are busy training their new staff to get the pizzas to their high standard, and anyone who walks in before everyone is trained up gets to taste test and enjoy free pizza.

"When we're ready we will charge. If we're not ready, no charge," said Pelle.

They also can make up fresh salads, and sell gelato made down the road at Dolce and Salato Paticceria in Civic. There's also plans to grow the business more in the future.

Five-night wine course

Wine experts Lester & Adrienne Jesberg are running a five-night wine appreciation course at the East Hotel in Kingston starting Monday, March 2. They use about 70 wines to illustrate the course and aim to help people understand why they prefer certain wines, and help them identify faults in wine. The course covers palate structure, faults, flavours, cellaring and serving wines among other topics. The Jesbergs have been writing about wine for 26 years and Adrienne says they've been teaching the wine course since 1982 - and some of their previous students have started sending their now-grown kids along to the course. It runs for five nights, every Monday from March 2 to March 30. The classes run from 8pm to 10pm and will be held in the Vinyl Room at East Hotel, Canberra Avenue, Kingston. $315, including all wine. Email adrjes@bigpond.net.au or call 0414 396 047 for bookings.