Spring Street’s Grocer is the opening act of John Brisbane’s and Con Christopoulos’ budding community centralised around the finer sensibilities of “old world Europe”. The first cast member in this piece is Primavera.
Situated between Bourke and Little Bourke St, Primavera is a shop in the shop front of the soon-to-come grocery store, whose focus will be ‘on-the-go meals’ and finer condiment produce. The store will be complete with a charcuterie deli section and underground cheese cave. You read right, a grocer with a cheese cave. It’s mined under a prestigious mansion and accessible to the public only via waterfall (all right, that’s the Bat Cave). But, as this will be Melbourne’s first cheese vault that functions as a retail space, it will be met with the same allure and mystery.
If their gelato store is any indication of their aesthetic, the vault will ooze will Romanesque indulgence. A peek at the not yet complete cellar, shows red and white polished brick throughout. The store front exudes fine Roman masonry from the floors to the Sicilian marble bench top. Their logo depicts a Parthenon frieze and even the coffee is an Italian import.
Appearance aside, the Primavera isn’t solely a shiny thing to attract magpies. Their egg-free gelato stands alone as an artisan product for the most hedonistic tastebuds. All flavours are made daily with fresh produce and without the preservatives needed when keeping gelato in an open-air display case. It is stored in covered pozzeti tubs so that aeration doesn’t “alter the integrity of the flavours”. And the flavours come from nothing short of devotion. There is a single origin cacao bean for chocolate, a spanish rice pudding, a strawberry with reduced balsamic and goats curd, an Indian chai, and having ten alternating flavours per day there are too many to name.
To accompany the ten gelati are six sorbetti. These are made with the same due care and quality ingredients. Juice is made in a cold press very morning and sealed tight in take-away bottles. If you want something more unique made for you they will be more than happy to press to order. Cold press juice requires a longer process, sometimes taking up to five minutes per serve but unlike a normal juicer, a cold press losses no nutrients between juicing and drinking. Worth the wait.
All summer customers have been lining up out the door, the commotion attracting an even larger crowd. With the grocery store, cheese cave and florist to open in March, Couturing predicts much acclaim to come.
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