By By Trevor Pepys
Trevor Pepys reviews Barefoot Bar and Grill
Under the official Old Mates Act, each year Trev is obliged to break bread (not to mention wind) with quite a few acquaintances from bygone eras, some looked forward to more than others, for while time heals all wounds, she also wounds all heels.
What the foregoing has to do with this particular lunch is anyone’s guess, other than the fact that Trev loves to drop a clever epigram into the otherwise dreary diaristic travails that are the Pepys family business. In any case, the lunch in question was one of those that Trev always looks forward to, even if the conversation has moved on from smoking joints to aching joints.
So much tucker had passed through the system since the last time that Trev and his friend and former colleague (who wishes to remain anonymous, so let’s just call him Norm) sat down to nosh that the world had grown noticeably warmer, a few mates had shuffled off the coil and our normal default restaurants had either closed their doors or gone off the boil. Our mutual requirements were simple enough – good, simple tucker, cold beer and wine by the glass that will stay down, served to a table with a view.
Trev suggested the Barefoot Bar and Grill on Gympie Terrace, where on a midweek afternoon you can feel the cooling sea breeze on your face as it speeds the skiffs along the river. When Norm, a sometime habitué of the South American continent, found that the chef was Brazilian, we were sitting down to lunch before you could say olá.
As the name suggests, the Barefoot is definitely at the casual end of the riverside offerings, but don’t be fooled by that. The service is sharp, the menu brief but interesting, the prices definitely on the affordable side of the ledger. Norm was already halfway through his first Corona ($7) when Trev arrived (on time as usual but arriving early is a status thing with retirees, just because they can) so I did likewise and skulled it to catch up while we surveyed the menu.
“Let’s share a few things,” Trev suggested. “I don’t do sharing,” Norm retorted. I’d forgotten about this sharp edge to an otherwise sunny nature, but he suddenly softened, and ordered a share plate of Coffin Bay oysters natural (9 for $39). Have you ever seen two mature-age men trying to evenly divide the last oyster with a skinny oyster fork? Now we were having fun. He ordered another beer, Trev moved to the Aquilani pinot grigio from Margaret River ($10 by the glass), a perfectly adequate quaffer, and the oysters slid down the gullet with that pleasing after-taste of the sea.
Norm said he hadn’t had a decent fish taco since Buenos Aires and Trev said nor had he since Halse Lodge closed so let’s share the fish tacos served with tomato and chilli salsa, sour cream, guacamole and fries ($20). But Norm reminded him that the sharing had gone quite far enough, and I could keep my mits off his plate. Rather than create a scene, like that time in Miami that we can’t discuss in a family newspaper, Trev quietly opted for hostess Debbie’s suggestion of the chef’s special Brazilian Moqueca ($26), apparently a staple from the streets of São Paulo, with local seafood cooked in coconut milk, lemongrass and coriander, served with a fragrant herb and nut rice.
Norm declared his tacos tasty but less than inspired, and, using subterfuge to sneak a sly mouthful (“Look, that beautiful woman paddling upriver appears to be stark naked” – an oldie but a goodie) Trev concurred. The moqueca, on the other hand, was the star turn. Thicker and richer than a bouillabaisse (a Trev favourite), it was brimming with flavoursome chunks of local fish and delicious crustaceans, and each mouthful got better.
We could have done dessert, but we both knew our waistlines would love us if we didn’t. So we simply made a diary note to come again next blue moon.
The verdict: We’re spoiled for choice along the river, but if you’re thinking relatively cheap, very cheerful and tasty, value-for-money tucker with an exotic spin, put the Barefoot on your short list.
Barefoot Bar and Grill, 269 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville. Phone 2102 3355.