BESK.
West Leedy’s newest opening ticks plenty of boxes
Maybe it's a glimpse of the eatery of the future. Perhaps in five or ten years' time, what we might consider to be a “restaurant” today – a space with tables, a menu, a wine list, waitstaff to take your order – will be about as commonplace as a Blockbuster Video is now. Increasingly, it seems, venues are pushing themselves to be more - and the more you can be, the more successful you can become, right? In my mind, it’s a case of higher investment, potentially higher reward. Take, for example, Besk, the new bar/eatery/wine store/community space that neighbours Mary Street Bakery on Railway Parade in West Leederville. It's huge. It's good-looking. There's serious credentials everywhere, from the wine shop stockist, to the architect, to the bar program, to some of the guest chefs coming through the kitchen. This is the sort of place you only open when you're really sure you know what you're doing.
Besk is challenging to categorise. The best I can do is to say it's as if King Somm, in Bayswater, got together with Petition Beer Corner and they had a kid and put it through school in the western suburbs, and then that kid went to uni in Fremantle and met Little Creatures. If that quirky description didn't do it for you then perhaps it's better to single out a few key features. Style of service? You order at the bar and cutlery and napkins are bucketed on every table. Drinks? There's craft beers in small, medium and large format, and wine by the glass, half-bottle and bottle. There's also the excellent bottleshop where everything is available for take-away or drink-in (for an extra fee). House wines are a collab between Besk and Dormilona, the boutique Margs winery helmed by Young Gun of Wine award winner Josephine Perry. The expansive tap beer range features guest brews from Nowhereman just down the road, and Feral Brewing. If you're up to date with the latest drinking trends, you'll have a field day (or night).
Design? The venue is co-owned by Ben Braham of Braham architects. There's a lot going on. The conversion from the previous premises has seen many original features retained. Think industrial-esque exposed brick; the remnants of a tiled ceiling; smooth, unadorned concrete flooring. Old wooden beams transition into steel, giving the barest suggestion of the original structure. Tables are simple timber and black form ply. A sort of blush burgundy colour gets a run on various steel elements – the staircase railing, door frames, the lighting bars. Highlights include the huge shopfront windows which spill light into the cavernous room, and the al fresco seating area situated in a part of the building that looks like it's been bombed out. Very cool. There's the liquor store with bottles lined up smartly on black shelving inset into the brickwork, and a spill-over/private dining area downstairs with its own small separate bar. I commented to my dining partner - "if only they had a few TVs to put the footy on, there'd be no reason to leave". They do.
The food is decidedly unpretentious. Chef Gerrard Mitchell keeps the focus on pub-style offerings. There's fish and chips, steak and chips, chicken and mash, and a rotisserie of the day, as well as other smaller, snackier-type plates.
Beef tartare ($18) arrived simply, crowned with an egg yolk and accompanied by a lick of horseradish aioli and some little green cornichons. The preparation was good, dotted with capers, chopped onion and herbs and the raw beef was chewy and flavourful, particularly excellent when dolloped generously on the toasted bread. Saganaki with prawns and sugo ($22) was slightly less successful. Saganaki (a Greek word for a small frypan which has morphed to more commonly reference the type of food cooked using it) most generally manifests itself as fried cheese – think grilled halloumi. The saganaki which came out on this plate, however, was less grilled halloumi and more the dried, crisp bits of cheese left on a sheet pan after you oven yourself a frozen pizza. The cheese didn't have a strong flavour, and worse, quickly solidified to the point where it was impossible to cut. The tomato sugo which blanketed the resultant cheese biscuit was unremarkable, a little bit cold, and not helped by an oddly concentrated sprinkling of oregano. The prawns, however, were properly marked by the grill and were tasty, so there was a silver lining. Perhaps a rethink of the saganaki element is warranted.
A homemade yiros – flatbread rolled up with pork, spiced feta, tomato, onion, oregano and chips ($15) was fine – the bread might have benefited from being fried or toasted, as it was slightly dry. The elements were all there, but the resultant kebab wasn't banging with flavour. Granted, we only tried a few of the dishes on the menu, and there were some interesting looking options we passed up – including the Besk hot dog with crackling, mustard and smoked ketchup on a house-made milk bun, and octopus with paprika and parsley – but the impression was that the kitchen is still fine-tuning. These things take a while, and Besk is barely two weeks old. A good excuse for a return visit, I reckon.
The food, though, is just one aspect of this venue – I see the drinks offering as receiving the top billing on Besk's credits roll. Co-owner Elliot Moore, of Mane Liquor, says that Besk is "a neighbourhood pub" and is "community-minded" – and it's easy to see that vibe at play. Early on a Sunday afternoon, the venue was gathering momentum; girlfriends sharing a bottle out in the courtyard sunshine, groups of mates stretched along the inside high tables sinking IPAs with fingers dipped in bowls of chips. Serious winos and young couples alike browsed the liquor store shelves or posted up for a few plates and a glass of something interesting. There’s heaps of eventsy-type stuff in the works - think tap takeovers, guest chefs, and other collaborations. Besk will be many things to many different people. Will that investment reap those higher rewards? Only time will tell. But with summer on the way, the forecast is looking good.