Lunch with friends at Kooyong Tennis Club
Yesterday we made the trip to the posh part of town - Toorak - just down from one of Melbourne's poshest private schools - Scotch College - to have lunch with a small group of friends from my husband's working past. This little group is responsible for maintaining a social network of people who worked at ICL - the long-gone British computer company way back in the 70s and 80s and yesterday the wives were invited too - two wives were unable to make it but two of us could. The two of us 'outsiders' enjoyed ourselves immensely. And here's a coincidence (not a new one to us) - she and I also used to work together teaching at Preshil - an alternative private school in Melbourne. How small the world is sometimes.
Why the Kooyong Tennis Club - and specifically the Racquet Club, shown above? Well the chief organiser - a lady - is a member of Kooyong Tennis Club. To tell the truth I'm not quite sure why she is as I don't remember her playing a lot of tennis - well some occasionally. I should have asked her. Anyway being a member she can bring in guests. Without a member as a friend you won't get to dine there! Well I imagine they do weddings and things - but for just a meal I'm pretty sure that you need to be a member. We are not, which didn't stop us parking inadvertently in the Members' carpark. When I realised what we had done I had a small frisson of youthful class consciousness and guilt, which I tried to overcome - not very successfully until Anthea told us it was not a problem, and indeed it wasn't. No rude note or ticket when we returned to the car.
Being a club it is rather more formal in lots of ways than the normal Melbourne scene. There were dress rules smart casual for the ladies - my husband worried whether trousers would be accepted - which, if so, would be very seriously antiquated. The men however had to wear a shirt with a collar - not a tie, and just to be sure my husband wore a jacket - it was 29 degrees yesterday! But yes he did take it off once inside.
It's all terribly pukka and British/Australian I guess, though the staff are extremely pleasant and normal, though maybe somewhat more deferential than you would find in a normal Melbourne restaurant. For example we began with drinks on the terrace - with the 'house' drink being soda water and bitters - which is also very colonial somehow. But what a pleasant way to spend a few hours on a sunny Melbourne day - overlooking the manicured grass tennis courts and sipping a glass of wine with old friends.
Kooyong Tennis Club, in case you didn't know, used to be the home of the Australian Open - on grass. Oh the furore when the new Tennis Centre was built with an artificial surface. The debate went on for ages and with passion. The Kooyong Tennis Centre was built back in 1927 and was used for the Australian Open until 1987 - so for sixty years. I think it is showing its age, but it is still used for the Kooyong Classic, one of the lead-up tournaments to the Australian Open itself - or The Tennis as we call it here. Kooyong is now sandwiched between the railway line on one side (hidden behind trees) and the south-eastern freeway on the other - not hidden at all and above the level of the highest stands. Not exactly a peaceful environment. And I forgot to mention Glenferrie Road (one of Melbourne's busiest, complete with trams) on another side. But the club buildings themselves are discreet, panelled, sound proof and colonial. Far from the raucous crowds that used to gather at the court for the Australian Open.
And what about the food? Well they had a $25.00 daily specials list from which we all chose something I think - simple stuff - steak and chips, fish and chips, pumpkin ravioli (my choice) and lamb chops with salad - though they had fancier descriptions than this. I think mine was something along the lines of pumpkin ravioli with sage butter sauce and toasted pine nuts, but there was also a 'proper' menu which was also not super expensive. And the white wine of the month was lovely - a Seppelts Chardonnay I think. The food was very nicely presented by the way and the dishes all came at about the right rate for a leisurely lunch. I think I have been here before for lunch with Anthea but on that occasion we dined in the cheaper, maybe self-serve place next door. That was nice too though.
Then there was dessert. Well I was going to include the dessert in this post but when I looked into the various things I was going to look into I quickly saw that there are two, maybe three more posts there. So I shall simply leave you with its description.
Raspberry and lemon chiboust meringue with semolina custard, citrus soil and yuzu sorbet. See what I mean?
I guess the food was a bit more than Ok, the environment was lovely if a bit retrograde, but it's good to travel back in time every now and then. The location is not so good for us though - as we came home through the private school belt the private school children were pouring on to the streets and their mums were cluttering the roads as they picked them up. Lots of traffic, lots of traffic lights, slow journey home. I enjoyed it anyway.
