Six openings to gee you up for a Geelong trip (and a hatted bistro to visit before it closes)

Geelong’s dining – and drinking – landscape is in flux. It took a blow when Aaron Turner’s two-hatted fine diner Igni closed last year, but its rebirth as northern-Thai barbecue joint Songbird was a fiery consolation prize. Likewise, the recent news that hatted French bistro La Cachette is also set to shutter is offset only by the fact that if you book quickly, you might snag one of the few remaining tables before its last service on August 11.

But beyond the high-profile chopping and changing is a steady stream of newcomers that, together, are helping to pick up the slack. Here are six worth putting on your radar.

Eileen’s Charcoal Grill

In Geelong’s inner-western suburb of Newtown, the longstanding Sawyers Arms Tavern is a triple-threat: it’s got quintessential pub dining down pat, as well as modern-Asian restaurant Two Noble upstairs, and now Eileen’s Charcoal Grill downstairs.

For new custodian Paul Upham – who ran the Lorne Hotel before Merivale snapped it up – having a multifaceted offering means “people are thinking about us more often when they go out”, he says. “The venues are feeding off themselves, really.”

Named in honour of the pub’s previous owner, Eileen Clatworthy, the upscale 50-seat steakhouse has moody dark-blue tartan carpet and walls, with choice pieces of Geelong Football Club memorabilia from as far back as the early 1900s.

“There’s no gas in the kitchen at all,” says Upham, which is its point of difference. Charcoal and red gum fire a tight menu of mostly Southern Ranges beef, from a 200-gram eye fillet (with a marble beef score of four) to a shareable one-kilo rib-eye.

A large Coravin list allows you to try premium wines by the glass, whether you’re after a ballsy Rockford basket-press shiraz from the Barossa or something fancy and French.

Open Wed-Sun noon-2pm, 5.30pm-8.30pm

2 Noble Street, Newtown, eileens.com.au

Daisy Bar

“The biggest compliment someone’s given us [at a soft launch] is that it felt like an elevated house party,” says Alex Brownbridge, who with business partner Alistair Bullock, is soon to open basement cocktail bar Daisy in a laneway just off Little Malop Street.

“A lot of [Geelong’s] bars and nightclubs are fun but quite young,” says Brownbridge. Daisy will be “somewhere with more of a chilled vibe, where you can interact with your bartender and have a really good-quality cocktail”.

The pair is behind local mobile business The Cocktail Cart, and they’re funnelling their drinks chops into a bar that’s serious about cocktails without taking itself too seriously.

The spicy marg has mezcal and tequila, passionfruit liqueur, lime and a house-made chilli tincture spiced up with habaneros, jalapenos and gochujang, and the Blush is fresh and smashable, with gin or vodka, Aperol, watermelon juice, lime, sumac and mint.

Daisy is set to open in early August.

4 Shorts Place, Geelong, daisybar.com.au

Ilza Japanese Cafe

Since opening in Melbourne’s Docklands in 2018, Japanese cafe Ilza has gone from strength to strength, expanding to the eastern suburbs of Box Hill South and Nunawading, and Little Collins Street in the CBD. Its fifth location is in Geelong.

Owners Erin Kim and Han Oh – who met working at Nobu – say they saw a gap in the market. “We found there are many cafes in Geelong but the majority of the Japanese ones do sushi and curries,” Oh says. “We wanted to add some more options to the mix.”

Among them are brekkie brioche rolls available only at the Geelong cafe, with fillings such as pork katsu and beef menchi (a breaded, deep-fried mince patty); rice bowls with all sorts of proteins; and, soon, onigiri (filled rice balls) to round out the offering.

Open Mon-Thu 8am-3pm; Fri 8am-3pm, 5.30pm-8.30pm; Sat 10am-3pm, 5.30pm-8.30pm

1 Malop Street, Geelong, ilza.com.au

Other recent openings to know about

Not as new – but no less newsworthy – is Club Chin Chin (370 Moorabool Street, South Geelong), a regional spin-off of Chris Lucas’s enduringly popular Flinders Lane restaurant in GMHBA Stadium’s new Joel Selwood Stand. It has match-day dining and exclusive dishes such as panang curry with twice-cooked lamb, and fried custard pies.

Closer to the main drag, the recently opened cocktail bar Non Disclosure (shop 2, 71 Little Malop Street, Geelong), by the team that operates nearby 18th Amendment Bar, is all Gatsby-style art deco. And Turner’s Songbird (rear, 205-207 Moorabool Street, Geelong) now does takeaway, including delicious gai yang (grilled chicken) sets.

And over in North Geelong, well-known Burleigh Heads-born bakery Paddock (Federal Mills, Tenancy W4, 33 Mackey Street, North Geelong) has put down roots in Victoria, bringing its wood-fired sourdough – and creme-brulee doughnuts – to Gee-troit.