Marla Singer – Memorable Food and Drinks

Marla Singer – Introduction

We have, for a long time, thought that there are a number of opportunities for food outlets and drink outlets on the Eastern shore. Our IT business sees us working in the Government offices in this area quite often, for example, and we are always looking for places to eat at lunch time.

So, we were delighted when Audrey Coffee opened in Bayfield Street (which is quite close to the Government offices), serving coffee that had been locally roasted by Villino. It very quickly became a magnet for people seeking good coffee made from good beans by competent operators of the coffee machine. At one stage a few years ago both of us were involved in projects at the Government offices and would call into Audrey every morning for a caffeine hit!

And now Marla Singer has opened in the Bellerive Quay area serving interesting food and interesting drinks. The dishes are made from produce sourced from some of the best organic suppliers and many of the wines and beers are natural or organic.

Marla Singer – the people

One way to introduce you to some of the people at the helm at Marla Singer is to talk about their past. The easiest person to introduce is Pete who is part of the group that originally opened Audrey and we think he is still involved. The others (Annette, Brianna and Jonathan) were all part of one of our favourite cafes of the past namely Ruckus Fried Chicken in the New Town KMart building where many of us would congregate to enjoy perfectly cooked fried chicken and other treats.

As for the name, you have to be familiar with the Fight Club to know what might have motivated it. We might do some further exploration of the character after which the cafe is named and perhaps talk to the team to work out what is behind the choice – we are sure it will be an interesting discussion!

It is easy to locate the restaurant as there is a sign board on the footpath outside with Marla Singer prominently displayed. When you open the door and walk inside two things will grab your attention. The first is the pastry cabinet on the counter and the second is behind the counter where there is a pile of freshly baked bread. Both definitely qualify as eye candy!

Marla Singer – the food

On our first visit to Marla Singer it was lunch time so we were pleased to see dishes such as muffuletta and salad and radicchio and pastrami ruben served with beer vinegar pickles (in fact pickles feature strongly here which is a very positive thing). There were also dishes that also appealed such as buttermilk chicken schnitzel, lamb ribs and bone broth rice bowl each of which we will try on future visits.

And we also noticed poached eggs, polenta crumpets and scrambled eggs as perfect breakfast options for a future visit as well.

We enjoyed both of our dishes which were packed with fresh salad ingredients and the bread was made on the premises very skillfully.

As an aside, many years ago with our IT hats on, we were asked to become involved in a job in New Orleans designing an electricity market. This gave us a good opportunity to try many of the restaurants in that southern city. One of the iconic dishes there is the muffuletta. Well, we thought that the one we had here was better than those we tried in New Orleans.

Marla Singer – the drinks

There is also an exciting 4 page wine list that ranges widely from the Coal River Valley in Tasmania to South Australia to West Australia and then to Italy and France.

As many readers know we have been importing natural wines from France for many years and some of them are on the list (as we explain in another story on this site which we are gradually developing).

Many of the other wines are along the same lines as the natural wines we import, organic in the vineyard, wild yeasts only for fermentation and no additions except for a little dose of sulphites in some.

While we were having lunch, sitting at the next table was Jane Huntington from the Two Metre Tall brewery in the Derwent Valley. After she had finished her lunch we were pleased to see her delivering some of her treasured beers.

If you haven’t tried one of the Two Metre Tall Wild Ales then you now have even more reason to drop in here – these beers are the result of extreme patience and great skill, made naturally using the yeasts in the air and on the grain.

And, of course, as you can imagine with Pete involved, they have a good coffee program as well. We enjoyed an espresso after our meal which was excellent.

Conclusion

This is a wonderful addition to the dining scene in Hobart and we wish them all the best for their venture.

You can read more about Marla Singer on their Web site here.

We also have included Marla Singer in our best of Hobart story here.