Overview
With a whole swag of urban venues under its belt, MoVida has at last ventured beachside. Acclaimed chef and owner Frank Camorra has chosen the ground floor of the Lorne Hotel as the site of his first coastal Aussie outpost.
For Camorra, Geelong native and longtime Lorne regular, the new venture is a fitting addition to MoVida's lively, Spanish-inspired family, and follows a successful five-day pop-up at the same pub last summer.
While unmistakably a MoVida operation, filled with familiar elements, the sunny seaside locale has also lent this latest venue plenty of its own identity. Buzzy and casual, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the beach, it's primed equally for post-swim snack sessions as for those festive, big-ticket feeds.
"We want it to be a place you can pop in for lunch or dinner, straight off the beach in shorts and a t-shirt and feel comfortable," Camorra explains. "The food's designed so that you can have a glass of wine and a few little snacks and off you go again. Or, if people want to make a night of it, that's fine as well."
To that end, expect a generous menu, heavy on the seafood and showcasing plenty of regional produce. A handful of MoVida fan favourites sit alongside plenty of new coastal-inspired bites. Think, corn and manchego croquettes, hand-filleted Cantabrian anchovy croutons, Otway shiitakes in a Spanish-style omelette, and adobo-spiced gummy shark from the Apollo Bay fish co-op, fried crisp in semolina. There's a lineup of both Spanish wines and local varieties, backed by a tight list of simple, yet interesting cocktail creations.
And, just as at MoVida's CBD sibling Bar Tini, this venue also boasts its own providore and bottle shop, stocked with an evolving curation of goodies — artisanal Spanish products from Camorra's import business Alimentaria, alongside ready-to-eat meals, supplies from Fitzroy's Meatsmith, smallgoods, wines, and cheeses from both Spain and Australia.
There are also plans in the works to launch a take-home paella service, where you can grab a full paella to go and return the pan the next day. "The idea is that if people come down Friday night with the family and the last thing they want to do is to cook a meal, you can pop-in, buy something and take it home," explains Camorra.
Find MoVida Lorne at 176 Mountjoy Parade, Great Ocean Road, Lorne. It's open from 12–3pm and 5.30–10pm daily.