The northside favourite has ventured south of the river with a seafood spin-off.
Melbourne’s Mexican game is surging for summer with a new El Columpio “taqueria and marisqueria” (taco and seafood restaurant) on St Kilda Beach. The kiosk is between the St Kilda Sea Baths and Catani Gardens, overlooking a lawn that gives onto the promenade and the beach itself. It was previously home to Claw & Tail. The seating is all outdoors, or you can take your spoils to the sand.
Here, the team use more expensive ingredients, such as seafood, prime steak and prized chiltepin chillies, a tiny wild-grown red pepper with an intense but short-lived burn. Those ingredients are brought together in dishes such as the taco mar y tierra (sea and land), with porterhouse, prawn, guacamole, melty Oaxacan cheese and a chiltepin salsa.
Another signature dish is the torre de mariscos, a seafood tower for two people ($50) presented in a stainless steel tube that is removed at the table, revealing a layered stack of cooked and raw prawns, raw scallops and diced tuna, cucumber (or mango in season) and avocado. It’s then toppled into a marvellous messy pile before being lavishly sauced for diners to pile over crisp tortillas.
Fitzroy bestsellers such as the signature taco de suadero with beef brisket will be heading south of the river, served alongside new dishes like a taco with calamari and pico de gallo.
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