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Anchovy owners lift the lid on Jeow, their new Laotian restaurant in Richmond

Emma Breheny
Emma Breheny

The interiors of Anchovy have been left mostly untouched for Jeow.
The interiors of Anchovy have been left mostly untouched for Jeow.Josh Robenstone

Melbourne chef Thi Le and partner Jia-Yen Lee are ready to show off their new Laotian restaurant, Jeow, which will showcase the "bright and funky flavours" of Laos in the Bridge Road space that, until June, housed their hatted restaurant Anchovy.

Opening on Saturday, Jeow has been a quick turnaround project for the pair.

"We're literally keeping everything as is," says Le. "It's like opening a new restaurant without any of the stresses of opening a restaurant."

Not that it's been a walk in the park, thanks partly to a COVID diagnosis a couple of weeks out from opening night.

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Le was finalising the menu when she spoke to Good Food, but confirmed she'll be serving or lam, a stew usually made with buffalo meat and lots of herbs, given peppery lift by mai sakahn (sometimes called chilli wood or pepper wood). Le's dish will feature beef.

"I've discovered lots of [Lao] stews, which I love now; they're so herbaceous and light. It's almost a curry-like consistency but without the heaviness of coconut cream," she says.

"We're going back to neighbourhood kind of vibes."

The restaurant's name refers to the collective term for Laotian sauces, dips and pastes, another obsession with Le, who has long incorporated Laotian ingredients into her menus at Anchovy.

She took Melbourne's lockdowns as an opportunity to lean into her love of the cuisine via rotating takeaway menus.

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"I love using the mortar and pestle and I think Laotian food embraces that," Le says. "Everything gets charred over the wood-grill and pounded out."

Along with jeows, she's working on her own unfiltered fish sauce, known as paedak, but that won't be ready for another six months at least.

The menu is structured into salads (including three or four different styles of laab), grilled items such as house-made pork sausage or spatchcock, along with stews, curries and a couple of simple desserts. A set menu will be served for Sunday lunches.

Co-owner Lee has designed a drinks list that favours lower-alcohol and savoury wine varieties, vermouths (including Melbourne's own Saison) and sherries, all of which she feels pair better with the spicy, funky, textural food of Jeow.

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Everything is designed to be eaten family-style, with all dishes on the table at once.

"We're going back to neighbourhood kind of vibes," says Lee, who is looking forward to people being able to drop in solo or with friends for a casual midweek dinner.

It's business as usual at Ca Com, the banh mi bar they opened last August.
It's business as usual at Ca Com, the banh mi bar they opened last August. Simon Schluter

Plans to relocate Anchovy to a neighbouring space have been delayed to 2023 due to liquor licensing issues. But it's business as usual at Ca Com, the banh mi bar they opened in the adjoining shopfront last August, after more than a year of running a pop-up sandwich stall.

Open Thu-Sat 6pm-late; Sun noon-2pm from July 16.

338 Bridge Road, Richmond, jeow.net.au

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Emma BrehenyEmma BrehenyEmma is Good Food's Melbourne-based reporter and co-editor of The Age Good Food Guide 2024.

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