The Forresters

Bar Food Booze Cocktails Convenience Food Eat & Drink Pizza Pub Bistro Wine

Jackie McMillan
March 21, 2012

Image: After breathing life into The Norfolk, Abercrombie, Flinders and Carrington, inner city pub messiahs James Miller and Jaime Wirth have turned their talents to The Forresters. They’ve given us a homely red-sauce diner with a smidgen of Nevada upstairs, where you sit and sup from plaid banquettes under cartwheel lights by a river-rock feature wall.

After breathing life into The Norfolk, Abercrombie, Flinders and Carrington, inner city pub messiahs James Miller and Jaime Wirth have turned their talents to The Forresters. They’ve given us a homely red-sauce diner with a smidgen of Nevada upstairs, where you sit and sup from plaid banquettes under cartwheel lights by a river-rock feature wall. The pub magnates’ success has attracted a gun floor team, with Tomislav, Forbes & Burton & Gazebo defectors whizzing by. The menu here is more modern trattoria than dude food, but I still advocate that you pick a peck of Pepper Poppers ($12) for a juicy moment of hand-to-mouth. Punctuate ‘em with cute-as-a-button Baked Clams ($16) washed down with Four Gears in Reverse ($16), a smooth pineapple and smoky tequila based cocktail that made me regret not ordering a Jug ($30). Daily rotating Rotisserie ($25/head) delivers (on Tuesdays) a whole lot of charcoal chook for your spend, dished up with stellar spuds and finely shaved ‘slaw. It’s thirsty work (okay, over salted) but I still finish it and every slice of the ‘Nduja, Tallegio and Mashed Potato Pizza ($22) whilst chugging Drift Pinot Noir ($10/glass). The pizza’s a star, and not just for carboholics, though I politely petition for more spicy spreadable pork.