Like many hospitality-based businesses, Yarra Valley-based winery Tokar Estate established an offering to help take the restaurant experience home throughout the 2020 Melbourne Lockdown, and this time around for lockdown 4.0, the Yarra Valley Winery’s well-oiled kitchen has quickly pivoted to offer Rita’s Pantry once again.
Named after the matriarch of the Winery- Rita Tokar, celebrating European values of great food and generous portions, the menu offers a premium experience that is prepared in-house at the winery by our head chef and the team from scratch that can be plated within 20 minutes with minimal preparation.
The fixed pack offers four complete meal options presented in convenient vacuum-packed serving sizes for one, two, or for a family, and includes generous portions of proteins and flavoursome sides that simply need to be placed sous-vide in water to heat or boiled in the case of pasta. The menu will rotate with new offerings fortnightly for the duration of lockdown.
The offering is priced at:
Single-serve $70 (serves 1 adult) / Double Serve $120 (serves 2 adults) / Family Pack $220 (serves 4 adults)
This time around, the offering includes:
- Veal Osso Bucco with creamy potato mash and parsley gremolata
- Harissa Chicken with a mixed grain salad
- Yarra Valley Mushroom Soup with truffle pecorino crumb
- Tokar family traditional polish pork and veal cabbage rolls with rich tomato sauce
Additional meal portions of any meal can be added for $30 for a double serve.
All packs can be picked up from the Winery, with free delivery for orders over $100 within 30km of the cellar door. Orders under $100 incur a $15 delivery charge. Orders over $200 also receive a complimentary bottle of wine from the Tokar Estate ‘White’ Label range. In addition, those with a sweet tooth can add on a homemade cake baked from scratch by Rita Tokar herself, from locally sourced ingredients, these European-style cakes will take you straight back to nostalgic memories of your mother and grandmother’s kitchens.
There will be just four of each cake available.
Choose from:
- Moist Chocolate Cake
- Almond and Coconut Cake with Passionfruit Icing
- Spiced Apple Cake
Each offers generous 8-10 portions and is priced at $45. Daniel Tokar of Tokar Estate said the offering was there in an effort to continue opportunities for the team.
“The lockdown has hit the hospitality industry hard. Because we employ so many locals, and their local families in our kitchen, cellar door, and restaurant we wanted to find a way to ensure they have a job that complies with regulations and continues to offer them some security. Our team will be delivering, packing, and preparing these products in line with the government regulations and food handling best practice – hopefully, this can continue through the lockdown.”
“We have significantly reduced the costs of the offerings, despite the process and ingredients being exactly the same as a dine-in experience so that this is an accessible option to all, this allows (we hope) for more orders, thus more work for our team. We have also changed some of our suppliers to be local wherever possible.” Mr. Tokar said.
Tokar Estate is also offering great value mixed -six cases of wine perfect for pairing with Rita’s Pantry meals starting at just $99 for a pack offering $199 worth of wine.
Orders will be taken online via the website at https://shop.tokarestate.com.au/, over the phone at 03 5964 9585 or via email ritaspantry@tokarestate.com.au. Credit Card Payments only.
