Stomping Ground Beer Hall is the new Collingwood home of Melbourne craft beer company Stomping Ground Brewing Co. It’s the latest venture by Guy Greenstone and Steve Jeffares, the owners behind The Local Taphouses in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as the GABS, Melbourne’s biggest beer festival. It’s also amazingly family-friendly!
Stomping Ground Beer Hall houses a bar with over twenty taps, a large kitchen and dining area, a beer garden with retractable roof and a brewhouse. Elements from the location’s former existence as a fashion warehouse are still evident in the decor, which exudes inner city cool while still being welcoming of families.
The entrance is small and hidden but the vast space inside means you won’t feel like you’re on top of anyone. It’s an all weather venue so there are huge roaring fireplaces for winter cold and part of the roof retracts for summer.
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There’s plenty of room to manoeuvre a pram and there are several high chairs available. The best seating for families is at the long wooden benches within sight of the play area.
The amazing, custom-built cubby house by Castle and Cubby is prime real estate. Even the adults are climbing all over it!
It’s a split-level mansion using reclaimed materials and adorned with bells, twisty knobs, garden boxes, a bucket pulley and various vintage artefacts.
There are chalkboards, small chairs, a miniature picnic bench set. It’s fenced with a gate but not locked.
Lady AB and Baby 2.0 spend ages playing many imaginative games there. Apparently it’s still a work in progress so it’s going to be even more amazing in the coming weeks!
The menu is also evolving, with more options being added as equipment such as a wood-fired oven are installed. For the moment there are small plates to share, large dishes for two people, mains, salads and kids meals.
We have the beer battered sea bream with fennel and cabbage slaw for a very reasonable $14. The two small but fresh crunchy fish fillets can easily be a meal on its own, even without the addition of chips. In fact, I would give the shoestring chips a miss and go for the crunchy, salty, parsnip ribbons seasoned with truffle oil and black pepper instead ($6).
A healthier option is the grilled baby carrot salad with chickpeas, feta, chilli and rocket. Again it is very reasonably priced at $12 and the serving is large enough to be a meal on its own.
The kids chomp down on cheeseburgers with fries, the most expensive kids meal option at $12, but the owner assures me that there are healthier kids options rolling out soon. I suggest the Jamie Oliver trick of offering all kids meals with a side of salad (or veges) with the promise of a ‘prize’ if it’s all eaten :-)
I’m not a beer drinker but I end our meal with beer ice cream made by North Fitzroy’s Billy Van Creamy ($5). Both are recommended, with the maltiness of the non-alcoholic ‘Upside Down’ Brown Ale ice cream just edging out the ‘Bearbrass’ milk stout.
Stomping Ground Beer Hall is still coming together but based on my early experience it promises to a fantastic family friendly venue. Kids can play and adults can eat, drink and socialise. Cheers to that!
HOT Tips:
- Pram access;
- High chairs;
- Indoor/outdoor area has with a cubby house with chalk;
- kids menu;
- Standard menu suitable for kids;
- limited free street parking.
