East Gippsland is renowned for its abundance of outdoor activities and endless, uncrowded beaches and in recent years it has emerged as the sleeping giant of Victorian food, drink offerings. There are some great new openings in the region. We’ve compiled a list of the best and the brightest.
In the beans
Sol Coffee Roasters Lakes Entrance is bringing the next generation into coffee. Locally roasted intown, the family run business led by Thomo and Mieka Thomas pride themselves on environmental values and choose to minimise packaging and labelling. The pair identify themselves as being self-professed coffee snobs who work closely with suppliers to ensure the green beans are sourced from many different parts of the world.
You can shop online for their beans or visit some of the fantastic cafes and restaurants around Lakes Entrance including Sodafish and Wyanga Park Winery.
For the love of Gin
The launch of Bancroft Bay Gin is a product of COVID for owner Craig Lucas. Based in Melbourne, but with a holiday house in Metung, he started brewing gin as a bit of fun with a five-year plan. The plan went into to overdrive and the gin is now on the market and selling at local Metung eateries including The Local and The Farmer & The Cook.
Craig has produced two flavours – Honey Blossom and Red Gum - following a collab with local producer Tambo Valley Honey. He is producing two more flavours – Chinaman’s Creek, an Asian Inspired drop and Shaving Point, with more to come!
Small batch distillery
Moving to a small acreage property on the Tambo River in Swan Reach from Geelong, Logan’s Micro Distillery has been working hard to set up their distillery in East Gippsland. The plan is to produce an array of produce from a newly planted orchard and botanicals garden including a dedicated juniper plantation.
Products can be purchased from select retails in the region or online.
Choose from a range of premium spirits including spiced cherry gin, sambuca blanco, lemon limoncello or Thai venom vodka to name just a few.
Giant bulbs
Justine Ward and Brett Dawson of Waterholes Garlic at Clifton Creek planted a whopping 14,200 cloves of garlic for their 2022 crop and after three years of farming, are beginning to see the fruits of success from all of their hard work.
Brett says their 2021 crop was the best batch yet, so we can’t wait to see how 2022 comes out. The farm produces giant garlic bulbs averaging 24cm girth – an impressive statistic!
Garlic is available for purchase at David Luckes fresh food market in Bairnsdale.
