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PHOTOGRAPHY JULIAN KINGMA
As the late,great George Michael once sang:
“If you’re going to do it, do it right”. This is exactly
what chef Matt Germanchis and his partner Gemma
Gange have done at Captain Moonlite. They’ve taken
over the dining room of an unspoilt (okay, mildly
neglected) surf lifesaving club, one with unbeatable
beach and coastline views, and modernised both
room and menu without cocking it up. It’s a minor
miracle and a fine argument for the power of simplicity.
Germanchis is best known for his time heading
both the Melbourne and Sydney versions of Pei
Modern, but the roots of what he’s doing at the
Anglesea Surf Life Saving Club go back further. About
10 years ago, after a stint in the UK working at Heston
Blumenthal’s pub The Hinds Head, Germanchis took
himself off to Greece and ran a waterfront taverna on
the island of Skiathos for a year. That’s where Captain
Moonlite had its genesis.
This isn’t to say that it’s a Greek taverna. It’s not,
really, though the menu does include one of the prettiest
and most authentic Greek salads around – super-fresh
tomatoes, cucumber and capsicum, Kalamata olives,
a scattering of dried oregano and a splash of olive oil
punctuating the startlingly white slab of feta lying on
the top. Add a sea view on a sunny day and it’s hard
not to get all misty-eyed about that Greek island
holiday, even if you never actually made it.Magic in the Moonlite
With a menu informed by the flavours of the Med and an unbeatable beachfront
location, Captain Moonlite nails the seaside-dining brief, writesMichael Harden.GREECE IS THE WORD
Above from left: Fremantle
octopus with potato cake,
salt and vinegar; Captain
Moonlite’s Matt Germanchis
and Gemma Gange.MELBOURNE REVIEW
Dips and pita also make an appearance, though
they’re modern versions of classics presented for
maximum prettiness. Any resolution not to photograph
everything you eat will be tested often here. The
taramasalata is a dazzler – off-white, not too salty,
made with an imported roe paste and cultured cream,
and topped with Avruga and a sprinkle of Kampot
pepper. Tzatziki is heavy on the cucumber, sprightly
with lemon juice, fresh mint and dill, and finished with
a dark green pool of parsley oil that adds more lively
punch. The bread, warm from the grill, is from
Thomastown producer Mr Pitta. The authentic-
modern dip upgrade is thorough.
The grilled Fremantle octopus is a looker. A curling
tentacle cooked sous-vide and then finished in a
kamado barbecue, it arrives golden, smoky and crisp
around the suckers and at the ends. The dish is
already a menu stalwart, but Germanchis changes the
accompaniments so it might come with a superb crisp
potato cake topped with a salt and vinegar powder and
aïoli on one day, and then a charred sweet and sour
bullhorn pepper on another. Whatever the change,
the octopus remains the star – beautifully textured with
a finely tuned level of smokiness – a card-carrying
representative of traditional Greek cuisine.
But Greece isn’t the only word here. It’s interesting
to observe just how well the place illustrates>