On Friday night I went to a Tweetup foodie event at The Provincial Hotel in Fitzroy. Yep, I met a heap of people from Twitter and we all had dinner. I already knew @calfy, @cheriecheroo, @starinmelbourne and @jentopia from previous meet ups (I knew @calfy (Shawn) as we went to primary school together, and Jen and I are blog/Twitter friends). The other 11 people were strangers to me – I only knew a few of them from their Twitter accounts. It’s so cool to meet people from the internet. Everyone was so lovely! Meeting people from the internet is no longer the dodgy, seedy and risky thing it once was. I highly advocate it!
The Provincial Hotel is beautiful inside – rustic and spacious. I went there in 2003 when I first moved to Melbourne, and I don’t recall it being this dedicated to food – from memory, it was solely a pub. I only took a few photos of the interior.
This giant bottle of Veuve Cliquot was in my direct view.
Some of the group had previously dined at The Provincial and interacted with the restaurant through Twitter (of course!).
The executive chef, Paul Cooper designed a special menu for us – such fine dining at amazing value! In all honesty, I feared a degustation menu would leave my tummy and purse empty at the end of the night. But my fears were allayed early on – it was less than I expected to pay, and I was pleasantly full.
Although the restaurant was full of diners, it felt like we were the only group in the room – great, personal service from all staff.
Like all Tweetups, and this a foodie Tweetup, mobile phones were at the ready, next to cutlery, poised for tweets as the night progressed. Descriptions of food, introductions (follows) and thank yous, all in 140 characters or less. Some of us placed our gourmet street presses on our side plates, folded up like napkins. We were ready to eat and tweet.
I’ll write you through the menu now. It seems like the logical step for five courses. We had bread for starters, with really high quality olive oil and balsamic for dipping. No photos. You can imagine bread, I am sure.
Heirloom tomato and watermelon salad, with mint, radish and marinated fetta.
2nd Course
Scallop Ceviche, avocado, cucumber, lime, and ginger beer granita.
3rd Course
4th Course
House corned Warialda Belted Galloway beef silverside, with crushed potato, mustard, and almonds.
5th Course
Chocolate Fondant ‘just for Cherie’
oooh lala! The Provincial has always been in my mind as a great drinks venue but blogposts such as this have certainly got me interested in trying out its foodie repertoir.
Also great to see them getting on board the bloggers/social media wagon with such aplomb – and Carly, I'm now going to sign up for your foodies group! Xx
Looks excellent!
What delicious food!
Looks like it was a great night, Carly!
SSG xxx
Sydney Shop Girl blog
What a great idea – a Tweet-up – although I'm yet to get on Twitter because I already spend far too much time online. Looks like you had a great and delicious evening!
I really wish I bought the SG swallows top!
I'm feeling a bit of non-buyer's regret…
ps
Love your layers.
xx
LH
Sounds like fun!! And I love the Provincial – fun night!!
Thanks a lot for the good article.