From a tiny craft brewing operation to a full-blown bar and bistro, Love Shack proves the best country pubs are no longer the oldest.
There are a few things you can count on in Victoria’s gold-rush towns. Grand, optimistic civic buildings line wide roads. There are many churches. Street corners will be inhabited by handsome pubs.
Castlemaine, an hour and a half north-west of Melbourne, had dozens of pubs in its 19th-century heyday, places for prospectors to celebrate, commiserate and gather in hope. You wouldn’t think there’d be any need to create a pub on a wholly new site, but here’s Love Shack, sprouting up among the existing high-street shops and giving the old-school hotels a 21st-century kick-along.
It’s a vibe. Plaid-shirted arty types sit on the pavement with pots of lager and smash-pattie burgers. Day trippers from the city stash a haul of secondhand clothes in their front-bar booth and settle in for Sunday roast. There’s a roar by the pool table as an eight-ball rockets into a middle pocket.
Love Shack is in a sweet spot: locals love it and the pub loves them right back.
Regulars compare their footy tipping tally: one’s ahead on AFL, the other is smashing it in AFLW. I’m third in line at the bar, reading a poster advertising a Wax On event where anyone can bring in three vinyl records or CDs to play. If you lived here, would you ever have a night on the couch? There is so much happening at Love Shack seven days a week, and it’s inclusive and friendly.
Love Shack started as a tiny craft brewery in 2021, when ex-Stomping Ground employees Conna Mallett and Harry Cox set up a brew kit out the back of the Theatre Royal. They partnered with designer Todd Vanneste and powered on with branding and brewing, developing beers that are well-crafted and quaffable, rather than wacky and attention-grabbing.
After a year, the owners put in a bar and made toasties, then two years ago they brought in a chef and boosted the menu. Just two months ago, they expanded into the cafe next door and turned it into a bistro. What the hell, guys, you made a pub!
The look is nostalgic, crafted with fondness and a bowerbird’s eye for cool stuff abandoned on nature strips. There are Australiana prints, timber panelling and swirly carpet. There’s sport on TV in the front bar, table service in the new bistro and fun times throughout.
Chef Joel Baylon is a Castlemaine boy who left 20 years ago when people were more likely to chat about the town’s huge bacon factory than its dining options. Baylon cooked and learned at places including two-hatted Aru and The Moon wine bar, where he was head chef. Coming home for a quiet country life was the plan; sorry, Joel, you’ve got a hit on your hands.
The menu is proudly pub food, but there’s also a bit of small-plate wine-bar pizzazz and a sprinkling of misty-eyed nostalgia. How else to think about the vol-au-vent, filled with mushrooms, parmesan cream and a jaunty tangle of balsamic-dressed frisee?
Whitebait was a customer suggestion: chips are one thing, crisp little battered fish with aioli and lemon are a better thing.
Scotch eggs are all about the reveal: is the yolk gooey, the mince layer moist and tasty within its crumb casing? This rendition is “yes” all the way through and gets a “hell yeah” for its vegan XO dressing made with roasted almonds and chilli crisp.
Baylon is having some good chats with Cliffords Quality Cuts, the butcher up the road. The shop is using local beef to make patties for the diner-style cheeseburger, and preparing cuts such as the Barnsley chop, a double-sided lamb loin that’s on the menu as a special.
Obviously, there’s a parma. This one is made with smoked mozzarella and the kitchen’s own sugo.
Love Shack is in a sweet spot: locals love it and the pub loves them right back. Visitors to town can lock into the feedback loop just by walking through the door. Castlemaine’s gold rush is long past, but the prospecting is excellent.
Three more country pubs to try
Parker Street Project
The Royal Mail is home to fine dining restaurant Wickens, which has its own pavilion, but there’s also the Parker Street front bar and bistro in the old pub. Much of the produce is grown in a nearby market garden. Bar snacks include chicken wings with house-made hot sauce, a fried chicken burger, and a ploughman’s platter with local cheese.
108 Parker Street, Dunkeld, royalmail.com.au
Criterion Hotel
Built in 1865, extensively renovated in 2013, and with new owner Chad De Lany (ex-Flinders Hotel) coming on board in 2019, the Cri is the kind of pub that makes a town, with good accommodation and hearty feeds for those passing through. The menu has everything from baked camembert to Korean fried chicken and local Gippsland steaks, with regional wine on the pour too.
90 MacAlister Street, Sale, criterionhotelsale.com.au
Swiss Mountain Hotel
Just west of Daylesford, this single-storey weatherboard pub has also been pouring beers since 1865. New management has recently taken over, and the happy hour is keen. Come for pub classics, craft beer and a chat under the old-timey verandah.
3454 Midland Highway, Blampied, swissmountainhotel.com.au
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