sallyhammond.com.au

GPO GETS MY STAMP OF APPROVAL

If there is anyone in Sydney who knows more about cheese than Sonia Cousins, please raise your hand. Not that Sonia would say that. She’s too modest. But after dining at the newly reopened GPO Cheese & Wine Room the other night I am awed by this fromager’s knowledge and understanding of cheeses. Not just Australian ones either, although all my favourites – many of them recently awarded medals at the Sydney Fine Food Dairy Awards – appear on the menu, or I can see them for sale in the eye-level display, the cabinet-style ‘cheese-room’. Stretching the width of the provedore area, it is packed with over 100 seasonal cheeses from here and all over the world, each of them carefully selected by Sonia. 

As for the rest of this subterranean space deep below Sydney’s original General Post Office – which, if you haven’t been paying attention, was completely remodelled to include a Westin Hotel, several restaurants, food outlets, bars and boutiques some years ago? One end is packed with all the goodies that go with those cheeses (and that of course includes racks of over 250 different wines) while the other has been transformed into a moody bistro-style space, complete with pictures, mirrors and avant-garde light fittings.

But the part that took my eye, and where we opted to sit, was the one-table-wide tunnel, along one side, newly discovered during the most recent renovations, although dug over a century ago. Once the connecting passage to the Tank Stream, it now has just seven tables for two and the best ambience ever in which to sample the tapas–style dishes, cheeses and matching wines. That European-cellar feel immensely enhanced the experience for me.

The Cheese & Wine Room is an intimate part of the food and wine-focussed downstairs of the GPO building, and the portion sizes on this menu are designed for sharing, with prices to match.

With 16 wines by the glass on the amazing wine list, we passed up on a Cheese & Wine Flight this time. There’s time for that, we’ll be back to try the promise of ‘three seasonal cheeses expertly matched with three sensational wines’ – well, who wouldn’t?

GPO Cheese & Wine Room is open for dining from 12 noon to 10pm, Monday to Friday. To make a reservation, or for further enquiries, phone 02 9229 7701 or email GPO

GPO CHEESE & WINE ROOM
at No. 1 Martin Place
www.gposydney.com/index.asp