A Tramcar Named Desire

We received a gift voucher for dinner on the Melbourne Colonial Tramcar Restaurant as a leaving present from the staff at the Green Park Brasserie in Bath, last night, we used that voucher to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  The Tramcar Restaurant was founded in 1983 and is supposedly the first of its kind in the world.

Barnadi at Southbank

We headed into the city early, by Tram of course, and spent an hour or so walking down the south bank taking photos of the city at night.  Melbourne truly is a beautiful city, especially at night, and the south bank is a good place to see it.  As well as the casino there are many lively bars and restaurants, which are busy even on a Monday night.  However we continued walking further along past the exhibition centre and along the much quieter South Wharf.  This area has seen a lot of recent redevelopment, but is like a ghost town after the hustle and bustle along the south bank.  It is quite sad for us to walk along there now as nothing exists of the venue where we help the Australian leg of our wedding 5 years ago.

After this little trip down memory lane, we headed back up to the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant pick up stop, which lies just between the Crown casino and the Exhibition centre.  Again it was busier than we were expecting for a Monday night and as we stood there watching other couples and small groups arrive I couldn't help get the feeling that we were entering an Agatha Christie novel, 'Murder on the Colonial'.  It made me wonder about the back story of all these seemingly unconnected people and what decisions and events made them all come together tonight. This feeling was strengthened when the Tram arrived and we boarded.  The interior of the tram was decadently attired with plush red curtains and tasseled lampshades, the lights under which flickered with the power fluctuations as the tram pulled away.  The perfect setting for a 1920's murder mystery.



Me inside the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant

Putting all thoughts of murder aside we quickly settled in with a glass of sparkling wine and some tasty capsicum dip and liver pate.  We were served by a very lively Australian waitress whose informality seemed both completely at odds with the elegant surroundings but somehow also completely in tune with it.  She certainly made everyone feel at ease and was quick to top up an empty wine glass.  It didn't take long to get used to the jerky movements of the tram, and compared to trying to eat on a plane when it hits turbulence it felt as smooth as anything.  For an entree I had the kangaroo fillet whilst Barnadi had the grilled barramundi.  For our mains I went for the chicken and Barnadi had the steak.  Considering the fact that all the food had to be pre-prepared and was simply being heated up and presented on the plate in the trams tiny little kitchen the food was surprisingly good, and we were having a very good night.  When the mains were finished we were presented with a small cheese board containing a Victorian cheddar and a Tasmanian blue brie, but I think we were the only table to eat all their cheese!

Colonial Tramcar Restaurant

The route the tram took was not quite what I expected, it travelled up Swanston street then across Victoria parade as if it were going to Richmond before stopping and travelling back past St Vincents plaza and along Collins street, at the end of Collins it turned left into Spencer street then headed straight down to St Kilda.  We stopped for a short while in Albert park where we could get out, stretch our legs and take a few photos outside the tram if we so desired.  On re-entering the tram we were served dessert as the tram made another loop of the city.  It was after this stop that we learnt the nature of a few of the other guests motives for coming on the restaurant that night, (luckily nothing as sinister as murder), a couple of birthdays were being celebrated and the man sitting at the table next to ours had used the short interlude to propose to his girlfriend.



Barnadi's Panna Cotta

For dessert Barnadi had the panna cotta and I had the sticky date pudding, a quick coffee and a cognac later however and the tram had reached its final stop and it was time to disembark.  Unfortunately the Restaurant does not do requests, so we had to get a standard tram back home feeling a little bit tipsy, very full and bloated and incredibly sleepy.