Essentials Magazine

Issue 16 mid-summer 2010

THE FLAVOURS OF PROVINCIAL FRANCE

Behind the wisteria frontage lays a unique establishment that oozes French savoire-faire while honouring the attributes of the local region. Owner Annemarie Harris considers her ‘pub’ to be three businesses in one – a bar, bistro and beautiful French-styled accommodation. As a sommelier, Annemarie’s husband, Shane, has lent his nose to a wine list that would be the envy of urban restaurants. The food comes with a leaning towards the produce of Stanley, which means cherries and berries take centre stage over the summer months. The Stanley also acts as a ‘cellar door’ for organic saffron growers Michael & Annette Nuck with this precious spice making a strong statement on the menu.

MenuLog.com.au

Overall 10 - Food 10, Ambience 10, Value 10, Service 10

Three generations of our family - visitors from Sydney and Melbourne as well as locals - had a wonderful spring birthday lunch at The Stanley, stretching on for hours. What a beautiful afternoon it was - one of those days that will stay in our memories for a long time. And what a gem nestled in the hills.

The food, wine and coffee were outstanding, the setting gorgeous, the atmosphere warm and welcoming, and the lovely garden a wonderful place for youngsters to explore and run around while the adults lingered over coffee. For me, the roquefort, onion and apple/walnut entree, the beautifully cooked trout, and the amazing apple tarte tartin were just stunning.

We were made to feel very welcome indeed with perfectly-pitched service - friendly and personal, warm, attentive, helpful, and not at all intrusive.

A huge thank you to The Stanley from an utterly contented Sydneysider, still enjoying the memories.   (Utterly Contented - October, 2009)

Overall 10 - Food 10, Ambience 10, Value 10, Service 10

Fabulous fantastic fun .....can't can't say enough good stuff... we ate and stayed overnight , the owners really own this place and make sure you feel like you live there...don't miss out on this experience

The Stanley Pub © 2009

All Rights Reserved

The Age Good Food Guide 2010

French

14/20

Once a thriving gold town, Stanley is now not on the road to anywhere. Its sole remaining pub, renovated a year ago, sits low and comfortable, its veranda fringed by wisteria, its garden shaded by old trees. The 1857 pub is divided into bar and restaurant, and is a model of what new life might be contained in an old hotel. The bar, complete with dart board, has its own menu including olives, nuts, steak sandwich, and fish and chips. In the simply furnished restaurant, the menu looks towards the bistros of provincial France and, like them, makes good use of locally grown produce. The menu changes seasonally, complemented by an enterprising wine list that includes a range of locals. Try the salad with Milawa chevre croutons to start, or mussels mariniẻre enlivened by locally grown saffron; follow with a classic steak with anchovy butter or peppercorn sauce and fries, or grilled baby chicken on a bed of lettuce and peas. The tarte tatin, with Stanley apples, is a must for dessert. If you’ve booked in to one of the rooms, settle back near the fire with a glass of something local and fortified, or a cognac.

Herald Sun Tuesday, April 13, 2010  - 37 out of 50

Stephen Downes - Restaurant Review

Few country hotels can match the Stanley Pub’s grub

Pub with no peer

Imagine a country village where mobile phones don’t work and you sit down to mostly excellent food in a mid-19th century pub. It’s called Stanley, a hamlet of a few hundred souls some half-a-day’s drive from Melbourne, near Beechworth. The Stanley Pub is modest, its wine list fabulous. Experienced hospitality duo Shane and Annemarie Harris own the pub and wait on tables.

FOOD 15/20

The Harris’s key aim is to serve well-cooked, fresh and wonderful produce. They succeeded admirably. And although regional foodstuffs are paramount, they’ll get the best from far afield if need be. The night I dined, ocean trout and oysters came from Tassie. Some decades ago I gave up trying to get restaurants to serve oysters properly. Without prompting, the Stanley Pub does it. At $3 a piece, Tasmanian Pacific's were opened to order adductor intact. Served with red-wine vinegar containing chopped shallots and black pepper, they were magnificent. However, neither a bouillabaisse ($18) nor the excellent mayonnaise partnering it were hot enough. The emulsion lacked the fire that would have made it a spicy rouille, and the tasty oranged-colored fish soup imitating a bouillabaisse should have been several degrees hotter. A small splayed poussin ($27) starred in a dish of excellent, rounded and well-balance flavours. Green lentils under the halved and succulent bird were perfectly cooked and punctuated with small choppings of carrot, onion and celery. A thyme veloute added a creamy, herbal edge, and short lengths of a great Wodonga-made black pudding added sweetness and ballast. Fine local dry-aged beef “striploin” ($32) was great in all gastronomic respects. It sat on a delicately tasting spinach “pesto” (puree) and was partnered by baby carrots, halves of small cooked mushrooms and a fine juice. A cylinder of chocolate fondant ($15) hardly melted and oozed. Its texture was lightly cakey. I would have said but its taste was fine. It came with coffee “soil” and brilliant Kiewa Valley Gundowring ginger ice cream.

STAFF 8/10

The Harris's call on decades of experience and their service is pointedly professional. Running the front bar and the bistro simultaneously, though, they’re sometimes detained elsewhere.

DRINK 4/5

Wine buffs might moan the Stanley’s wine list isn’t long enough or doesn’t have Grange. It’s as good as I need one to be. It’s local, comprehensive in grapes, and its prices range well.

X FACTOR 2/5

Heavy duty paper napkins are a Zzzzzz factor. And they are not changed between courses. Otherwise, The Stanley is all modesty, an 1850s pub with hybrid additions including the bistro, where you sit on timber chairs at timber or compo tables but use fine glassware and cutlery. Let’s just say that it ain’t the Ritz.

VALUE 8/10

Excellent for food and even better for wine.