Molly Rose Brewing brings the fun, the beers and mind-bendingly good chicken wings

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Sometimes we want restaurant meals to be transcendent. Some days, we’re looking for comfort, or consistency: a perfectly grilled steak; a bowl of pasta that’s just a smidge better than you might whip up at home. But there are times when the thing that’s most likely to get us motivated to get up and out of the house is a sense of joy, of relaxation, of fun.

The most fun I’ve had in recent weeks while dining out was at the bar of Molly Rose Brewing in Collingwood.

Since opening in 2019, Molly Rose has been a favourite for craft beer drinkers in Melbourne, especially for its seasonal offerings, which are mostly available at the brewery itself (its more standard beers are available at bottle shops across the country). But until recently the food offering has been minimal – some charcuterie, a couple of jaffles.

In March, Molly Rose founder Nic Sandery celebrated the expansion of the business’ footprint – he recently took over the building next door and opened an outdoor beer garden – by bringing on chef Ittichai Ngamtrairai to balance that food/beer dynamic. Ngamtrairai is Thai-born and Melbourne-trained, and his menu adheres to no particular rules other than deliciousness and, yes, fun.

Partially inspired by the Asian melting pot that makes up much of the best food in Sandery’s hometown of Darwin, and partly driven by Ngamtrairai’s diverse culinary background, the food plays with genre in ways both clever and appealing.

The baccala-stuffed chicken wings ($9 each) are mind-bendingly entertaining, comprising elements of classic American bar food (Buffalo-style spicy hot wings), classic Japanese bar food (a riff on teba gyoza, stuffed wings found at many izakaya), and Italian salted cod. They’re gloriously spicy, the dripping hot sauce mixing with a garlic-chive kewpie mayo on the side, the lightly fishy stuffing offering an almost tawdry element to the deal.

Large spring rolls ($6.50 each) are stuffed with sweet potato noodles and black fungus, topped with globs of stuff that tastes of tamarind and miso and mayo, and are made to appeal to the pure base instincts of the snacking gods: hot, crispy, creamy, salty, sweet, crunchy.

But then Ngamtrairai swings the other way entirely, delivering cured trout ($25) over velvety coconut with mandarin kosho and a silky sliver of guanciale. Here, elegance reigns, albeit slightly off-kilter elegance, in the best possible way.

A few things on this menu are almost straightforward: a roast chicken with jaew, the fish sauce-rich chilli sauce from northern Thailand ($34); a 300-gram O’Connor grass-fed porterhouse steak with mustard ($48).

But if I come back to Molly Rose primarily for the stuffed chicken wings (and the beer), my subsequent motivation will be the char kwai teow ($29), the sticky noodles appropriately wok-stank-delicious, a generous hunk of sai ua, the fragrant northern Thai sausage, on top.

It would be negligent to spend so much time on this food without giving equally hearty kudos to the beer, which has always been the main draw of the place.

Large spring rolls ... appeal to the pure base instincts of the snacking gods: hot, crispy, creamy, salty, sweet, crunchy.

I’m particularly enamoured of the farmhouse ales on offer. Right now there’s a fantastic wine-like version called Squished Berries ($38/750ml bottle) made with the leftover skins from a local winemaker, and another called Some Plum ($38/750ml bottle), made with fresh plums, that is, unsurprisingly, plummy. But it finishes clean and without any of the cloying pudding notes that can sometimes overwhelm a beer like this.

Service is jocular, friendly, informed and, perhaps most importantly, the banter is A+. In other words: these kids are in on the fun.

During Melbourne’s short winter days, that sense of fun is perhaps the most significant factor in making me want to leave the cosiness of my house, to get out into the city and feel like I’m part of a community, to look for a celebration.

And that’s exactly what Molly Rose is delivering with this foray into more ambitious cooking. Sandery and Ngamtrairai are having a blast, and it shows. My guess is that you’ll have a blast with these beers and this food, too.