DEEP SOUTH BREWING CO

Argyle Street isn’t somewhere that you’d immediately think of heading for dinner, but with the new Deep South Brewing Co (220 Argyle Street, North Hobart) venue opening for dining, it’s suddenly a destination. Dave Macgill last year left Moo Brew after 14 years in the role of general manager and head brewer to pursue a personal project…and this is it. Teaming up with Warwick Deveson and Ben de Rue, Dave has been quietly brewing while the venue was getting ready to open. We made an early Saturday evening booking and arrived to a healthy crowd. The downstairs area is a swathe of concrete floors and a sneak peek of the brewery down the back. We were seated in the upstairs dining area – a dark but warm space already heaving with a 40th birthday and a few large groups. The menu is extensive and features small plates, pizzas, meaty mains, interesting sides and desserts. After some excellent chips to start, we get into our proper order with a couple of pizzas (Hawaiian, $23, yes we like pineapple on pizza, and a Funghi, $24) which were the right amount of chewy and crunchy. We also tried the lamb meatballs with carrot puree ($14), the fried brussel sprouts with celeriac puree and black olive pangrittata ($8) which were outstanding and the baby cos with sauce gribiche and horserad[1]ish ($7). To finish, the mini cinnamon doughnuts, toffee apple puree ($14) do the job nicely. The beer offering keeps locals in for a few as top of mind – the focus is on easy drinking American and European style beers. With 12 rotating taps, there’s always something new to try. As we left, the downstairs space was heaving, affirming that Hobartians really just want a place that’s comfortable, good drinks, good food at a reasonable price, that’s as easy to take your mates as it is your kids or your parents. Deep South delivers that.

MIGRANT RESOURCE CENTER KITCHEN

The situation in Afghanistan is distressing but it’s easy to feel disconnected from it and think, “what can I actually do to help here?” Despite being very far away in geography, there’s actually a lot you can do. I felt a good place to start for me was to check out what’s happening at the Migrant Resource Centre in Glenorchy. As an organisation, MRC Tasmania provides services to meet the needs of migrants, humanitarian entrants and refugees living in Tasmania. The kitchen is one of the programs – a social enterprise project which provides a pathway to employment for people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Participants undertake practical workplace experience, which furthers training and employment opportunities in the hospitality industry. The kitchen is open to the public from Wednesday to Friday each week, run by experienced Hobart foodie, Megan Quill. On my recent visit it was a pleasure to learn from Megan about the current projects the team are working on – including a beautiful cooking series currently on YouTube featuring staff members cooking their specialty dishes such as Nour’s chicken fatteh ($18), which we enjoy for lunch. We got our meal started with a bowl of Syrian kishk ($11.50) which we learn starts with drying yoghurt, which is made into a broth, “like a warming hug” according to Megan, dotted with minced beef and pasta. I loved the spicy lentil injera ($16), a colourful meal with Eritrean soft, springy flat bread as the ‘plate’ topped with potato and green pepper alicha and pickles. Not one to shy away from dessert, I took a seewa date biscuit ($4) home, which we were told are a staff favourite and my lunch date smashed out two baklava ($3.50). If this is one way to support the migrant com­munity in Hobart, then we are all in.