Emilia reviews a restaurant in one of Melbourne’s darkest, most eerie sites

Press PLAY below to hear Emilia’s full review

Only Melbourne could take one of their darkest, most historic and eerie sites and turn it into a wine bar and a high-end restaurant. This week I visited the converted Pentridge Prison in Coburg. 170 years of history which they’ve beautifully melded with the new interior but kept all the retaining walls, bluestone and iron doors. 

The wine bar, Olivine, is literally inside cells and the expansive bar is in the halls of Pentridge. They’ve rotated out bleak prison bunks for moving colours in the art and carpet, large forest green velvet booths. There’s curtains between each cell if you want a more private experience, whilst overhearing our neighbours conversations I thought about who our bunk mates would have once been. 

They have an upmarket wine bar-style snacky menu that mirrors their across-the-hall sibling restaurant North & Common which I also checked out. They are very considered in using some of the same flavours but none of the same dishes. Here, I loved the scallop tart with yuzu (I’m having a real yuzu moment), the chicken liver parfait, and the purple fried sprouts. 

The wines we tried were absolutely delightful – we just bought them by the glass and each wine was so different but delicious.

I think there is a propensity to get forgotten in the private rooms. The service felt a little disrupted and I would have loved to be taken on a bit more of a journey given the way the cells can make you feel, especially if you’ve got an over-imaginative mind like I do!

To counter that critique, the service at North & Common couldn’t be more opposite. Both my sister and I are annoying, with dietary restrictions but they were attentive and careful throughout. Their executive chef Mark Glenn (ex- Cumulus, Dinner by Heston) really flexes his credentials, leaving the marks of an experienced chef in the finer details of the dishes and the risks he takes with flavours. 

Here, we find ourselves in the former Mess Hall, we sat overlooking the Clocktower gate. All the moodiness of the wine bar is shed here, the 10-metre ceilings, paired with the light, earthy tones found in the interior throughout tells a very different story. 

We started with heirloom beetroot, whipped feta and macadamia, poached calamari and fried sprouts and grilled ox tongue and cashew cream. It all sounds very fancy (and it was) but it was also simple and delicious. I challenge you to have the ox tongue even if that’s not something you’d typically eat, they very finely slice it and it’s to die for (…see what I did there?). 

We shared the main of spatchcock. There was a crispiness and smokiness on the outside whilst keeping the meat juicy inside, I loved the blood orange on the side- the citrus swimming in the light gravy was a moreish balance.

Of course, I had to try the chips as my usual yard stick. They were fish and chip shop size and the perfect amount of crispy. They passed the chip test.

I completely bought into the gimmick. I will definitely be back for a night tour to learn more about the beautiful building with the dark history.

Considering you can get most of the flavours of Olivine at North & Common, I’d miss the bar food and just have a wine in the historic cells. For the service, the food and the overall atmosphere I would recommend North & Common any day of the week. 

If I had’ve told Ned Kelly I’d be sipping G&Ts in the same place he ate breakfast I don’t think he, let alone anyone could have ever fathomed this huge flip… then again, such is life.

Olivine and North & Common
1 Pentridge Blvd
Coburg VIC 3058
northandcommon.com.au