Auntie Annie’s saved the Kensington pub from development plans.
Less than six months since Kensington’s Irish pub The Quiet Man shut with a St Patrick’s Day send-off, the Guinness is flowing again – but now through Australia’s only double-barrelled Guinness taps. Able to pour two pints simultaneously, the taps are a freshly installed centrepiece at the pub, which has reopened as Auntie Annie’s Hotel.
Now part of his and O’Neill’s Zengal Hospitality Group – which includes Irish pub Jimmy O’Neill’s in St Kilda and cocktail bar Naughty Nancy’s in Prahran – much of the pub’s former glory has been restored, all in the name of a genuine Irish experience, not a theme park.
If it were possible to make the pub any more Irish, they’ve done it by adding Enbarr – a 60-seat restaurant with a modern take on the food of Ireland – in The Quiet Man’s former front bar on the corner. Led by Irish chefs Declan McGovern and Aidan Gallagher, the restaurant offers elevated versions of dishes you’d find in Ireland, with a focus on pickling and preserving. That could mean soda bread baked to their grandmother’s specifications; salmon gravlax presented with accoutrements supposed to mimic the colours of the Irish flag; or a “porridge” made from smoked barley paired with pumpkin, goat’s cheese and walnuts.
On the bar menu you’ll find the same trending spice bag that “kept Jimmy O’Neill’s alive in lockdown”. Crispy chicken, chips, capsicum and onion come with a secret spice mix and McDonnell’s curry sauce.
Ireland’s famous Kerrygold butter is key to the menu-spanning mash, which accompanies everything from beef and Guinness stew to “drunken” Jameson chicken breast. Chicken is marinated in mustard seeds and whisky for the nostalgic dish, which Gallagher also introduced at The Quiet Man. There’s also a morning menu available from 10am to noon, headlined by a full Irish breakfast complete with black and white pudding.
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