Little Creatures, little food and a little class
The brewery is housed inside one of the two boat sheds that make up their premises, the other houses the bar and restaurant with a giant glass wall separating the two so you can watch the brewers occasionally scuttle around checking valves and whatnot. It’s not a fascinating show if you ever even get to see someone, large modern brewery, even the smaller ones like Little Creatures are generally set-and-forget with only some monitoring of the brewing and fermenting. I was hoping for an ommpaloompa, but I guess they’re probably locked in cages to protect the public.
Little Creatures,
Fremantle
It was a beautiful sunny day so we went
through a couple of false starts to try and secure an outside
table, having much more success than most. The back area is large
and set to have the feel of your mate’s back yard, complete with
bocce pit taking up some valuable real
estate. Full credit has to go to management for not trying to
squeeze in an extra 100 people and ruining a great
atmosphere.
Inside are two levels of seating that seem to be able to fit
hundreds of people with the ground level split with a large bar at
the front and the open planned kitchen at the back, including the
wood fired pizza oven that probably didn’t help to cool the inside
of the warmer than outside shed. It was cooler outside in the
sun.
We didn’t want a huge meal, just something to tide us over until
dinner so we just ordered a plate of prawn skewers (a little over
cooked) and a spicy sausage pizza that left a satisfying lip tingle
for 15 minutes after you’d eaten it. For a wood fired pizza, I was
a little disappointed but I still went back for another slice. I am
glad they showed restraint in the toppings department and didn’t
overload any of the pizzas on the menu.
Prawn Skewers @ Little Creatures,
Fremantle
Spicy Sausage Pizza @ Little
Creatures, Fremantle
We only had the pale ale to drink here
and it was as nice as ever, and one of the better pale ales around.
I saw the cider on the menu when we first sat down inside but
completely forgot about it by the time we’d moved seats twice to
try and get outside.
It was really nice sitting outside watching the well-behaved
toddlers run around, a group of friends play a round of bocce and
others clamber over the small stage that’s occasionally used for
live bands so I’m glad we did shuffle around to get out there. The
wait-staff were friendly and mostly professional. The best evidence
of this was how the waiter and subsequently management dealt with a
woman we’d pointed out to them who probably chose the wrong seat
and should have waited to get an outside seat too…
Dignity. She Needs It
Monteith's Radler and Summer Ale
As I mentioned before, the Summer Ale is somewhat of a ginger beer, or a beer with a zesty ginger flavour at any rate. It's fairly different from any other beer I've had and is a great change of pace. Tossing in a slice of lime, lemon or even orange really changes the character of this beer, making it an entirely new flavour, taking away some of the zing of the ginger but keeping it in the background.
As for the Radler, it's like a Corona with a slice of lime added, but with out having to add the lime. Of the two it's the more refreshing and for today's sudden sun and warmth it was perfect for a mid afternoon refresher.
Coffee, Steak, Garden Salad and Beer some how work well in one meal
The general gist of the recipes went along the lines of grinding coffee with any combination of chili, coriander seeds, mustard seeds. fennel, salt, pepper, oregano and anything else you've got in your spice draw.
I used a broken up Illy
coffee pod, maldon sea salt, cinnamon, black pepper, mustard
seeds, coriander seeds and dried oregano. After I ground the spices
I drizzled the steak in olive oil and coated it with the spices and
grilled until medium rare. I tossed together a quick garden salad
with an olive oil and whole grain mustard.
On the side I had a Monteith's
Summer Ale, from New Zealand, which is a quite nice summer ale
that's got a lovely ginger kick to it which in turn leaves a nice
warmth on the palate. The bottle suggests a wedge of lime that
gives it a little bit heavier than a Corona mouthfeel and taste, but it also
suggests an orange segment. Damn I wish I had an orange to try this
with. All round, a great beer that's something different from the
rest and well worth a try.
