INTERVIEW: The Carringbush – BBM by Liam Matthews Abbotsford Melbourne Victoria

The Carringbush – BBM by Liam Matthews Abbotsford Melbourne

The team behind Melbourne’s music institution The Old Bar recently reopened one of Abbotsford’s oldest treasures The Carringbush Hotel. Focusing strongly on sustainability, its meat-free menu is largely vegan, all wine on tap, no packaged beer, eco-friendly reusable metal straws, ethical plates, environmentally friendly lighting and heating. Experience The Carringbush – BBM by Liam Matthews in Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria! 

Congrats on the new venue! Can you tell us a little about The Carringbush?

The Carringbush Hotel is a beautiful old pub situated in the backstreets of Abbotsford. The building is steeped in history with it’s links to the novel Power Without Glory and its long term relationship with the AFL. The poor old thing had seen better days by the time we were able to gain the keys and what we thought was going to a medium level refurbishment turned into a 10-month gut job and rebuild. The pub still has lots of character but it is now open plan with us having removed quite a few walls. We have 30 wine and beer taps and a fantastically brand new kitchen pumping out all vego and vegan pub meals. There is a real sense of community in this part of town and we are really happy with how the locals have responded to our hard work.

What made you decided to change the pub’s name and honour ‘Power Without Glory’?

This name change was actually made in the early 80s. We did toy with the idea of changing the name back to its original name which was The Langridge Family Hotel but decided that having the continuity of keeping the most current name was going to be beneficial to us upon reopening.

Why do you think it’s so important to have venues that strongly focus on sustainability?

Mainly it is due to the fact that the planet is not coping so well, we can all make changes to help reverse some of these issues we all face and then try to live a really low impact lifestyle. It just takes effort really. We live in a beautiful part of the world and it would be a shame to ruin that. Beyond that, the food that comes from using locally sourced raw products and making fresh pasta etc in house is really rewarding and tastes a lot better.  

You have a star-studded staff, what was the process of recruiting Tim Cashmere as Wine & Spirits buyer?

Basically, I invited him out to dinner and sold him our dream. Then I promised him the world as far as buying stock went which I think was the selling point for him. I have known Tim for a long time and have seen what he has done at other venues so was pretty keen on having him join us. The fact that he had also worked with the guys from Noisy Ritual and that was the wine we were hoping to have on tap was also a big deal for us.

What’s your favourite beer on tap (out of the huge list of 21)?

That is a super hard question, there are so many beers and they are all great. I do have 2 that I have been leaning towards recently and that is the Kaiju! Krush, this is really great on a hot day. The other is actually from out Mountain Goat infuser (or Randall), we take whatever Goat beer we like and fill the infuser with fruit or herbs etc and it infuses with the beer. My fave from this was our Summer Ale with the grapefruits, mint and passion fruit.

Coming from the Old Bar, is there plans to develop The Carringbush into a live music venue?

There is not. We are running a different program down here with 100% of the focus being on drinks and food. We love The Old Bar to death but we feel that we would just be competing with that by running a second venue. It is really exciting having 2 separate business’ doing two very separate things.

If yes, will we be seeing Head Chef, Roxanne Olsen with her band, Glomesh, take the stage?

In saying that Glomesh is actually playing at The Oldie tonight and they have been regularly.

How collaborative was the menu process? Was there a lot of tasting and feedback or did you give Roxanne total control?

I have also known Roxy for a long time as well and we knew straight away that she was the chef we wanted. This was a tad more complex than winning Tim over though so we really had to provide her with all her dreams (including a 100% brand new kitchen) and the ability to run the show in that space. We had complete faith in her decisions and while we did give her a brief as far as the pub’s operations and business model was going to look she did write the menu herself. We could not be happier with how it has been going. I have already heard some of her plans for the winter menu and it is really exciting.

What dish would you recommend the most?

I am hooked on the teriyaki tofu and rice in onion broth. The whole menu is great but this is my pick.

What can we expect from The Carringbush by the end of 2019?

We are really happy with where we are at the end of our 3rd month but there is a long way to go. I am still working on the build outside of hours so I would like to finish that by mid-year. We have a huge array of indoor plants and I really want to see them develop and have them breaking up some of the spaces. Most of all we just want to see the place really busy full of people having a great time. We love the idea of community and while it already exists in the area we like to build on that and have a super local crowd who know that they can always walk into the pub at any time and see some familiar faces to have a drink with.

THE CARRINGBUSH HOTEL

228 Langridge Street, Abbotsford
Sunday – Thursday: 11am – 11pm
Friday & Saturday: 11am – 12am

Website: www.thecarringbushhotel.com.au

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thecarringbushhotel

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thecarringbushhotel