Tannic Teeth

If you’ve been trundling down St Georges Terrace in the past few months, no doubt you would have seen the construction of one of Perth’s most anticipated small bars slash restaurants. The Greenhouse.

Drawn from the valiant effort of its older sister in Melbourne, Perth’s version has the rooftop garden (complete with veggie patch, fruit trees, and herb rows) and that oh so intriguing external lattice. Yes, those are individual terracotta pots. Yes, strawberries. Hundreds of them.

The idea here is simple. Be green. Minimise the carbon foot print. Make us scratch our heads over the energy inefficient lives we live. From the straw-bale insulation to the recycled plastic-container reinforced concrete, every effort has been made to reduce, reuse and recycle. More planning has gone into this than meets the eye. It’s one of those light bulb moments, where the environment and architecture have combined. It’s the way it should have always been. Ecologically sound, holistic approached. In many ways, The Greenhouse is leading by example.

On the menu you’ll find offerings for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All ingredients are sourced from producers either biodynamic or organic. Crushed peas & basil, poached eggs & toast to break your fast, or the tomato & goats curd tart, mixed leaves, aged balsamic for a midday feast, and dinner time it looks like a tapas. Piquillo pepper & manchego croquettes and pig head & trotter terrine, pickled cherries. Yum. And very reasonably priced.

It’s an interesting little zone, the Greenhouse. It’s unbleached, organic and recycled. It’s unapologetic hippy-esque nature lends to the charm. There is a prodigiously young staff-ship who look like they’re on their way to a Copenhagen; chirpy, hard-wired for action, in the first flush of youth.

Can’t wait to see those strawberries bloom. And for the place to put down roots.

The Greenhouse

100 St. Georges Terrace
Perth WA 6000

Mon & Tues 7am – 5pm

Wed to Sat 7am -12am

You know you’re doing something right when the queue for takeaway is snaking down the footpath.

Perhaps vying for a slice of burger glory in Perth, Jus Burgers is good example of so called ‘junk food’ done well.

Located in Leederville, it has become the touchstone for quality meat between two buns.

Ingredients are sourced locally, with particular emphasis on Western Australian produce. I may hazard a guess that most sources of food (sans meat and grain) would come from the metro area. You have Turkish bread from Vic Park, fruit and veg from Morley and chippies from Bibra Lake. Local produce means two things:

1) the distance from the produce to your plate is reduced, delivering fresher ingredients;

2) less distance equals less carbon footprints.

On the menu there are various takes on the humble burger (enter cheese, bacon, onion etc). You have wagyu beef, lamb, kangaroo, borewors, fish. Then three veggie options: vegan, chickpea or pumpkin to satisfy any table-thumping militant vegetarian (such as my partner). Meals range from less and $15 with lunch specials hovering at $10.

It’s ludicrous to think companies ship fruit and veg across the Nullabor in hulking refrigerated semi-trailers.

“To market, to market to buy a fat pig.” What ever happened to those days?

On a side note, try Stella Bella Chardonnay with The Bokka (Borewors Burger). It was a OMG taste moment. Nothing like skipping a NZ Sav Blanc for another local hero.

Do it local and do it right.

Jus Burgers

743 Newcastle St
Leederville 6007
Perth, WA
Phone: 08 9228 2230

• Finalist in Restaurant and Catering Industry Association Awards - Best New Restaurant of 2009
• Winner of Sunday Times – Cheap & Healthy Eating Awards
• Winner of I LOVE FOOD Awards 2009 - Best Hamburger in Australia