Restaurants run by restaurateurs rather than chefs - not restaur-ant-eurs, a malapropism that has bolted and left the gate swinging behind it - fall loosely into two categories. Some march to the beat of the owner's drum, the chef deferring to the creative vision of the person who pays the bills.
Others set their compass points towards the guy (usually) in the kitchen. It can mean vulnerability. Yet it can also mean a business is reinvigorated by a changing of the guard.
That's certainly the case with True South in Black Rock. Foremost a micobrewery, it's the sort of place where you expect to find a workhorse menu with no allegiances other than to that ill-defined category of drinking food. And that's pretty much what you did find until owner Grant Dow hired chef Mauro Callegari and put his faith in the Argentine native.
Callegari has put his stamp on the menu, peppering it with cheeky references to Maradona and the Falklands, his mother (good boy) and notes about producers.
It fits with True South's personality. Essentially Black Rock's favourite boozer, it's filled this Friday night with after-work drinkers crowding the bar and encroaching on the area where diners sit on cushions covering slatted wooden banquettes.
Textured with industrial surfaces - shiny white tiles, matte bricks, polished concrete - and with the brewing vats providing a moody backdrop, it's airy, raucous and fun, although the drinking-eating
dichotomy doesn't always sit easily with the Oktoberfest vibe. Take for granted a waitress bearing a notebook and she might not return if you ask for more time.
It's good to see a restaurateur-brewer giving his chef room to innovate, although history may prove them the vanguard of the latest bona fide food trend. Up north, Porteno is Sydney's most sizzling restaurant of the year, while locally San Telmo opened a few weeks ago in the city, buzzing with the kind of energy that could power the city grid. (That review coming up in a few weeks.)
It wouldn't be fair, however, to give the arriviste all the Argentine dues when this southern brewhouse has been doggedly building an audience for its Latin leanings for the better part of the year.
The menu is authentically protein-heavy, a celebration of the cow and the pig, a typical amalgam of Argentina's Mediterranean food influences.
To drink? The culinary splice works brilliantly with the beer, of course - five house brews and one cider on tap - on which note I'll defer to my compadres, who tripped their merry way through several rounds of the New World pilsner.
Grape rather than grain? There's a short, well-priced Victorian wine list with a couple of hero Argentinian varietals (malbec and torrontes from the Mendoza region).
Divided into small, medium and large dishes, the menu kicks off with eight tapas.
Grilled provolone, served in a dimpled ceramic dish not unlike the way the French do snails, has the universal lure of all melted cheese but the appeal of the salty, chewy little blobs is bludgeoned by time. Don't be shy - gobble for your life.
Chorizo from Casa Iberica deli is a porky, dense and, typical for the Argentines, mild sausage, charred from the griller and with a slather of chimichurri. A spicier, more Iberian version made by Callegari goes into little one-hand sourdough rolls slathered with aioli.
Calamari has been rolled in potato starch and cornflour with an aromatic mix of spices - cardamom, coriander seeds, fennel, star anise and smoked paprika. With garlic aioli, a squeeze of lemon and a green salad, it's the Latin version of the national favourite.
It's good to see the songbook hasn't been adulterated over any audience misgivings. The winter heartiness of morcilla bends to the season with a Basque recipe: a mellow black pudding loosened with a liberal dose of lemon juice and olive oil and mixed with heirloom tomatoes, currants, shallots and parsley to become the rich topping on toasted brioche. It's ridiculously moreish.
If offal's your bag, there are sweetbreads grilled to crispness, soft in the centre and served with chervil, thin apple slices and blueberries, although they might have benefited from less subtle sharpness.
Among the large dishes, dark ale-braised lamb combines True South's two loves to maximum effect. Slow-cooked chunks of lamb shoulder are deeply lacquered and gloriously compliant, the fat and collagen rendered out but the meat packed with flavour. Thyme jus and a light carrot puree make it the most restaurant-y dish - proof that while Callegari has the rustic thing mastered he can go upscale with aplomb.
The suckling pig broaches no restaurant allusions. Pure and elemental, this mainstay of the specials list will cost you - a quarter of a pig, which easily feeds four, is $100; a half-pig $190 - but argues the positive case with the combined power of a rosemary and cardamom salt that brings out the best in the toffee-like crackling and the accompanying bits and pieces: chimichurri, naturally, and a spicy macadamia and coriander pesto, plus a couple of salads - a caprese that reaps the rewards of That's Amore's mozzarella and a market salad of zingingly fresh seasonal pickings tossed with pomegranate molasses. A pork-fest with all the trimmings? Why aren't more places doing this?
Desserts go down the missionary route of familiarity as well as the shock of the new. Hot cinnamon doughnuts with the caramel-like dulce de leche fall happily into the former camp; candied pumpkin in sweet syrup with milk ice-cream into the latter, a tasty demonstration of the vegetable's perception in the Americas as a sweet.
It's a pleasant surprise, much like True South itself, which has dared to imagine the possibilities of a new chef. It deserves to reap the rewards of a path less travelled.
True South, 298 Beach Rd, Black Rock VIC 3193
Phone: 1300 878 360
Score 14/20 - A creative amalgam of Latin food influences.
-Larissa Dubecki