Messina Gelato’s new dining concept, Erin, will replace Messina Creative.
Messina Gelato has become a beloved icon in Sydney’s vibrant food scene, adored for its creamy, artisanal gelato and bold, inventive flavours. And with the introduction of Messina Creative, it became more than just gelato – it became a full experience. Now, the gelato geniuses are taking it even further by transforming Messina Creative into Erin.
Named after the Erindale dairy farm, Erin Restaurant & Bar will build on the success of their popular degustation concept while offering a more approachable experience for a wider audience. The new format has transformed Messina Creative into a wine and cocktail bar, featuring both à la carte and set menu options (eight courses for $89 per person), all incorporating gelato elements. This allows guests to enjoy the experience without committing to the full six-course degustation.
The pork pie with wild mushrooms, ketchup gelato.
In a company statement, Messina Gelato said, “Despite its success, we knew it wasn’t the easiest experience to access. With all the restrictions around bookings, many missed out – and that didn’t sit right with us."
Erin Restaurant & Bar will serve a unique combination of savoury and sweet dishes using fruits, veggies, milk, and beef all sourced from the Erindale dairy farm. Guests will enjoy dishes such as prawn toast with mixed seeds and tomato sriracha sorbet, Erindale gnocchi with pickled mushrooms, aosa butter, and roasted potato gelato, as well as a beetroot tart with caramelised walnuts, shiso, seaweed tart, and goat cheese gelato.
Diners will feast on a range of elevated dishes, each with a gelato element.
The venue will open on March 20th at their Marrickville flagship. Snackbar by Messina Creative will be incorporated into Erin, meaning you can still drop by for a more casual dining experience without committing to a full dinner.
No bookings are required, but they are available.
Open Thursday to Sunday.
Rachael Thompson is Australian Traveller's Evergreen Editor and a self-proclaimed cheese and Chablis connoisseur. In her role, she creates and manages online content that remains relevant and valuable over time. With a background in publishing and e-commerce in both interior design and travel, Rachael is dedicated to curating engaging content that informs and inspires. She began her career at Belle magazine, then went on to become Senior Content Producer at Homes to Love focusing on Australian House & Garden and Belle, followed by Editor at Bed Threads. Her work has also appeared in Qantas Travel Insider. When she's not writing, editing, or optimising content, Rachael enjoys exploring the city's newest restaurants, bars, and hotels. Next on her Aussie travel wish list are Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park and Lord Howe Island.
Victoria’s ‘mussel capital’ is the source of exceptional shellfish used by top chefs far and wide. Step aboard a beautifully refurbished trawler to see how these plump and juicy bivalves are sustainably cultivated.
A curtain is slowly winched from the placid, teal waters just off Portarlington , like a floating garland beside our boat. The ropes heave with blue mussels, the star attraction of our tour. But as we reach to pluck our own, it’s quickly clear they’re not alone; a mass of weird and wonderful creatures has colonised the ropes, turning them into a living tapestry. ‘Fairy’ oysters, jelly-like sea squirts, and tiny, wriggling skeleton shrimp all inhabit this underwater ecosystem.
We prize our bivalve bounty from the ropes, and minutes later the mussels arrive split on a platter. The plump orange morsels are served raw, ready to be spritzed with wedges of lemon and a lick of chilli as we gaze out over the bay. They’re briny, tender and faintly sweet. “This wasn’t originally part of the tour,” explains Connie Trathen, who doubles as the boat’s cook, deckhand and guide. “But a chef [who came onboard] wanted to taste the mussels raw first, and it’s now become one of the key features.”
A humble trawler turned Hamptons-style dreamboat
Inspecting the bounty. (Image: Visit Victoria/Hannyn Shiggins)
It’s a crisp, calm winter’s day, and the sun is pouring down upon Valerie, a restored Huon pine workhorse that was first launched in January 1980. In a previous life she trawled the turbulent Bass Strait. These days she takes jaunts into Port Phillip Bay under the helm of Lance Wiffen, a fourth-generation Bellarine farmer, and the owner of Portarlington Mussel Tours . While Lance has been involved in the fishing industry for 30-plus years, the company’s tour boat only debuted in 2023.
See how these plump and juicy bivalves are sustainably cultivated.
It took more than three years to transform the former shark trawler into a dreamy, Hamptons-esque vessel, with little expense spared. Think muted green suede banquettes, white-washed walls, Breton-striped bench cushions, hardwood tables, bouquets of homegrown dahlias, and woollen blankets sourced from Waverley Mills, Australia’s oldest working textile mill. It’s intimate, too, welcoming 12 guests at most. And yet there’s nothing pretentious about the experience – just warm, down-to-earth Aussie hospitality.
As we cruise out, we crack open a bottle of local bubbles and nibble on the most beautifully curated cheese platter, adorned with seashells and grey saltbush picked from the water’s edge that very morning. Australasian gannets soar overhead, and I’m told it’s not uncommon for guests to spot the odd seal, pod of dolphins, or even the occasional little penguin.
The sustainable secret behind Victoria’s best mussels
Blue mussels sourced just off Portarlington.
Connie and Lance both extol the virtues of mussels. They’re delicious. A lean source of protein and packed with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, iron, selenium, and zinc. They’re cooked in a flash (Connie steams our fresh harvest with cider and onion jam). And they’re also widely regarded as one of the most sustainable foods in the world.
Mussels served with lemon and chilli.
“Aquaculture is [often] seen as destructive, so a lot of our guests are really surprised about how environmentally friendly and sustainable our industry is,” Lance says. “[Our mussels] would filter 1.4 billion litres of water a day,” he adds, explaining how mussels remove excess nitrogen and phosphorus from the water. “And through biomineralisation, we lock carbon into mussel shells.”
Mussels are a sustainable food.
Despite their glowing list of accolades, these molluscs have long been seen as the oysters’ poorer cousins. “It was a really slow start,” explains Lance, who says that in the early days of his career, “you could not sell mussels in Victoria”.
But word has slowly caught on. Chefs as globally acclaimed as Attica’s Ben Shewry and even René Redzepi of Noma, Denmark, have travelled to these very waters just to try the shellfish at the source, sharing only the highest praise, and using Lance’s mussels in their restaurants.
Sampling the goods onboard. (Image: Visit Victoria/Hannyn Shiggins)
According to Lance there’s one obvious reason why the cool depths of Portarlington outshine other locations for mussel farming. “The water quality is second to none,” he says, noting how other regions are frequently rocked by harvest closures due to poor water quality. “We grow, without a doubt, some of the best shellfish in the world.” And with Lance’s bold claims backed up by some of the industry’s greatest names, perhaps it won’t be much longer until more Aussies uncover the appeal of Portarlington’s mussels.
