‘Wisps of magic’: Messina Creative’s six-course deg is all-ages fun but is it worth the pricetag?

Contemporary $$$$ Messina Creative’s six-course degustation, served in an in-house restaurant at the ice-cream maker’s Marrickville headquarters, is a marriage of art, science, theatre and wisps of magic. A 90-minute sitting offered three nights a week, the menu, which features six non-alcoholic drink pairings, is created from months of design, collaboration, testing and experimentation. Importantly, it is neither stuffy or pompous.

The whole experience – from peering round the curtained front door entrance at the appointed time to everyone leaving with a hand-filled jar of honey from bees at Messina’s dairy farm in Numurkah, Victoria – is all-ages fun. I would argue it warrants brushed hair and a smart outfit, if only to match the evening’s intricate orchestration of meticulously created food, all paired with sweet or savoury gelato or sorbet rarely found on top of a cone. The room, edged by contemporary art, wide windows and dark semi-translucent curtains, is low-lit.

Candles flicker in dark glass jars. Music and light levels change throughout the evening. This is a smallish (22-seat) room but the moody feel gives space and intimacy to each table.

There is, though, no way to mute the “Wows” as Joe Bailey, who co-runs the restaurant with fellow collaborators Go Amano and Alina Yourchenko, brings each course. Here is broccoli and sugar snap pea veloute with kombu (edible kelp), a mint tuille and salted yoghurt gelato. Looking like a snowy moon in a velvety gre.