Boston Brewery, Denmark, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

With the food at cellar door restaurants generally leaning towards fine dining and an environment unsuitable for young children, it was perhaps inevitable that something had to fill the more casual, family friendly dining niche in the South West. Considering the fact that the location of a brewery is arguably less terroir driven than wine (though cannot be discounted), the explosion of the 'Pizzas and Brewery' business model as the answer to this niche has been a surprising runaway success. Breweries are now such an ubiquitous fixture of all of Western Australia's major wine regions that families with younger children are probably more likely to have dined at a brewery than a winery during a trip Down South. 

Petite Villaine, Denmark, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Two years ago, Alissa and I visited Rockcliffe Winery for lunch. Back then, their cellar door restaurant was Silas Masih's Pepper & Salt - arguably the best and most interesting restaurant in Denmark - and Masih's spice-driven fusion cuisine combined with the ambiance of Rockcliffe's idyllic vineyards and gardens made for a very satisfying, lazy afternoon in the South West. By the end of that year, Pepper & Salt had moved out of Rockcliffe to take up residence at Forest Hill. I understood the move - Forest Hill's grand dining room is one of the best you're likely to find at any of WA's best cellar door restaurants, but I felt a bit sorry for Rockcliffe in a way, and hoped that the restaurant space would once again house a restaurant worthy of its setting.

St Aidan Winery, Ferguson, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Before heading off for our Melbourne trip last year, I picked up a copy of the then-current issue of Gourmet Traveller Wine as reading material for the flight since it contained an article on their recent Cellar Door Awards. It was nice to see some of our favourite winery cellar doors represented - Vasse Felix won Best Cellar Door with Food in Margaret River - however what I was most interested in was discovering new places to try in the Best Cellar Door with Food category. Last year we tried Estate 807 which won the award for the Great Southern region (curiously over the better Pepper & Salt at Forest Hill), and with the Geographe region's Willow Bridge on our wine tasting itinerary, we decided to check out the region's winning restaurant - St Aidan.

Arimia, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

One of the peculiarities of Western Australia's public holiday calendar is how sparse the long weekends become in the second half of the year. While the first half of the year averages 1 a month, after WA Day its over three months before the Queen's Birthday long weekend provides some respite from the relentless working week. The Queen's Birthday then is a holiday we all look forward to, independent of whatever feelings we have for the monarchy. This Queen's Birthday weekend was particularly important for Alissa, as it marked the end of her prac for her university studies and a weekend down south celebrating the birthday of our friend Annaliese Hutchison. After heading down with our friend Ben on the Friday night, Alissa and I had some free time on the Saturday morning to explore. After tasting (and purchasing) wine from the cellar door at Flying Fish Cove, Alissa and I decided to stop in for lunch at the cellar door restaurant at the nearby Arimia Estate.