Many a Carlton Football fan would have been heartbroken when Peter ‘Percy’ Jones closed the doors on Percy’s Bar and Bistro at The Astor Hotel. The four-time Carlton premiership player closed the venue after almost three decades of being the watering hole for local Carlton supporters.

While we can’t bring back Percy, you can fill the void with the new restaurant in its place. The Astor has re-opened on Lygon Street in Carlton with a new dining space The Roving Marrow, which is focusing a little more on food and a little less on the navy blues. The team behind this new venue earned their stripes in some of Sydney’s best venues and is hoping that translates to the new Melbourne audience. We’re thinking they might just do ok. 

The Roving Marrow brought to us by restaurateur Darran Smith (Merivale’s Hemmesphere and sushi e, Icebergs Dining Room and the Hilton’s Glass Brasserie) and head chef Hayden McMillan (ex Tribeca in New Zealand), is combining produce heavy European style dishes with a yum cha style service. Isn’t that new? This has been done to bring food back to being fun and light hearted, but with a heavy focus on quality.

The menu offers a range of dishes from small bites of shortrib dumplings with masterstock and balsamic, prawn and pork dumplings, and Sea Bounty mussel and kimchi pancakes, to larger mains of Hen’s Egg, smoked potato and mushroom, and Kurobuta free-range pork chop with fennel and smoked apple. Desserts round off the tight offering with the likes of apple, rhubarb, buttermilk, and rosemary, a plate of local and imported cheeses, or perhaps all you have room for is a dark chocolate truffle.

The interiors have been given a face-lift by another Sydney name Architect Thomas Jacobsen, the brains behind Sydney’s North Bondi Italian and the Beresford Hotel. The new space has that dark sexy bar feel with dark woods, leather seats and clean sleek lines.  

If a drink is all you’re after, you can head to the front bar, where Ruldoph Bertin, French expat and ex Iceberg’s Dining Room and Bar Sommelier has created a killer wine list. The wine list is a nice combination of local drops and European flavours. The cocktail list has been done by Mike Enright, barman and owner of Sydney’s The Barber Shop. 

If we had to choose wine over football, let’s just say we like the new direction of this venue. Cheers to that. 

The Roving Marrow
The Astor Hotel, 418 Lygon Street, Carlton
(03) 9347 7419 Wednesday & Thursday 6pm–11pm; Friday & Saturday 12pm-3pm, 6pm–11pm; Sunday 12–4pm
www.theastorcarlton.com.au

Photos by Lucas Allen